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William 
Howard 
Taft 

american 



BY 

ROBERT LEE DUNN 



the chapple publishing company, ltd. 
Boston 






THE CHAPPLE PUBLISHNG CO., Ltd. 

BOSTON, MASS. 

Photographs Copyright 1907-1908 
ROBERT LEE DUNN 

NEW YORK 



t^qq 



/i 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER I. 

His wonderful variety of work — Compared with Stanton — His 
official capacity in its growth — A prosecuting attorney at 
nineteen — When it paid to refuse a good salary — Little pri- 
vate life from the first— Foraker's appointment to a judge- 
ship — His first victory at the polls — His coming to Washington 
— His memorable labor decisions — Appointed by McKinley 
to the Presidency of the Filippine Commission — Ambition 
for Supreme Bench — Friends sceptical of success in Filip- 
pines — Twice declined appointment to Supreme Court — 
Entered the cabinet in 1903 and has been "home to the 
folks" twice since. 

CHAPTER H. 

First personal impression— Taft did not want advertising — 
Smiling five thousand into smiles — Manner in public speak- 
ing — Reviewing troops though ill Collapse after work was 
done — A jMCture he rather liked— Alleviating a major's stage 
fright — The major's revenge— A blase man's praise — Taft's 
bigness shown in lack of annoyance over little things — A 
story to save the day— Never studied traveling— It is second 
nature — Progress without {wmp- Likes no special privileges 
over other passengers— Gives a reasonable tip but never a 
big one. 

CHAPTER III. 

The summer family reunion— The foregathering at Murray Bay, 
Canada— An old frame house— Bits of ornamentation from 
the Filippines— Six days in flannels and one in blue serge- 
Goes to the Union Church on Sunday— A week day of dic- 
tating, golf, and departmental work— Devoid of false pride 
—The baby-raising days— Hucksters mingling with insular 
matters— Charlie and the bread-crumb smile— Taft's avidity 
for exercise — An epigram on suicide. 

iii 



CHAPTER IV. 

Sporting companions must train to keep up — Justice Harlan on 
the links — Home-made seismic disturbances— A story at Har- 
lan's expense — Balls and badinage — The tale of a subsidized 
caddie — Golfing in the Filippines — At the Devil's Bath Tub 
— The Silver tip bears — Charlie and the mule — Charlie and 
the fish-cooking trick. 

CHAPTER V. 

Opinions from the crowd — The good-natured giant — Climbing 
ventilators — Making friends below decks — The birthday cele- 
bration — Gifts on the breakfast table — The Pete Robinson 
story — The Captain's dinner in Taft's honor — Charlie dis- 
covers an extra birthday of his own — The Captain's calendar- 
license joke— Charlie's victory — Taft has never been sea-sick 
— The aboard-ship schedule is strenuous — Is mostly muscle — 
Work in quantity disposed of — Hard on his secretarial staff — 
Filling a number on a concert program. 



CHAPTER VI. 

The family of the public man — Taft takes his family with him 
— Helen Taft in Br^-n Mawr — Robert Taft in Yale — Taft 
and Friendship — Without servants — Not even a maid for Mrs. 
Taft- — Charlie's facility for losing himself — Stealing boys' hats 
— Trouble in Moscow — Fishing in the royal lake — Studying 
geography in a most practical fashion. 



CHAPTER VII. 

Taft's tour a peace commission — Making friends in Japan — 
Speeches around the world breathed spirit of true Ameri- 
canism — Dramatic intensity of Tokio Speech — The effect on 
the Japanese — The speech in detail — Unafraid to talk of war. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Taft and the Open Door in China — Taft has shown there was 
no bluff in the famous Hay doctrine — Opening the new build- 

iv 



ing of the Y. M. C. A., Shanghai — His speech — Relation of 
Fihppines to China — American trade in China — Inviolabil- 
ity of Chinese territory and open trade must be preserved. 

CILAPTER IX. 

McKinley appointed Taft on first hand knowledge of his ability 
— Praise from Roosevelt — Filippine problems — The friars 
and the friars' lands — Aguinaldo and the revolution — Fun- 
ston's capture of Aguinaldo — Guerilla warfare — The power 
of the local leader. 

CHAPTER X. 

Spanish friars blazed the way for Americans — Taft's belief that 
the Filipinos will govern themselves well ultimately — Too 
soon for independence — The great problem of the Orient^ 
Filipino education — Sanitation in Manila — Improvements 
made — Plans for the future — The school system — Some 
practical political education. 

CHAPTER XI. 

Taft is an irrepressible optimist — Acknowledges the necessity 
of material pursuits — These should not absorb all endeavor 
— Our national wealth is the result of effort, not luck — Young 
men of wealth should turn to public afifairs — England's leis- 
ure class that engages in public service — Never such oppor- 
tunities — Interest keen in colleges on insular matters. 

CHAPTER XII. 

Taft and the laboring man — He has been misrepresented and 
misunderstood in his attitude toward labor — His courageous 
appearance before a Socialistic audience at Cooper Union — 
Record of his labor decisions when on the bench — The Ameri- 
can Railway Union case — Taft's triumph before the unfriendly 
crowd — Some of the questions. 

CHAPTER XIII. 

Taft and the missionary movement — His speech to the Laymen 
at Carnegie Hall — Foreign missions in the Filippines — Roman 
Catholics and Protestants — The Missionary in China — The 
Boxer Uprising — The Hardships of Missionaries. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

The crisis in Cuba in 1906 — Taft is sent by Roosevelt to quell 
the revolution — Proclamation to the people of Cuba — Horrors 
of civil war averted — Grand demonstration on the part of 
the grateful people — Expressions of gratitude from Ameri- 
cans in Cuba — Cuban patriots eminently satisfied with the 
result. 

CHAPTER XV. 

Taft's American geneaology — All his ancestors for several gen- 
erations were Americans — Blood will tell — Many notable men 
in the list of Taft's progenitors — The Taft home in Ohio — 
His father as a federal judge — The neighborhood feud of 
Taft's boyhood — Taft's father a stern peacemaker — The im- 
mediate family and connections — Taft and his books — Yale 
freshman at seventeen — Graduated as salutatorian or second 
in his large class — Returned to Cincinnati to practice law, 

CHAPTER XVL 

Full text of Cooper Union Address 

THE APPENDIX. 

Details of birth, marriage, career, etc. 



VI 



INTRODUCTION 

^^^^HE life of William Howard Taft is a 
€ J demonstration. It demonstrates the 
^^^ manliness and integrity of American 
principles. It demonstrates that these prin- 
ciples will win; that by strict adhesion to 
them a man may achieve not only honor at 
home, but admiration and respect abroad. 
It demonstrates, in short, that it is as fine 
a thing today to be an American citizen as 
ever it was in the history of our country. 




Si-rrchirv ami Mi>. Tall 



1 



CHAPTER I. 



\^^^HE busiest, hardest working, most 
f J effective Secretary of War that the 
^^^ United States Government has had 
in many years is WilUam Howard Taft, yet 
he is the most accessible. Any one may go 
to see him, and he has time to hsten to 
each one, but where the time comes from 




is a mystery. No one else has so much to 
do, unless it be Theodore Roosevelt, and no 
one else ever did so many other things, with 
the same notable exception, yet the War 
Office has seen more work undertaken and 
carried on successfully under Taft's super- 
vision than under anyone else since Stanton 
during the Civil War. 

Secretary Taft's range of activity, however, 
is vastly more extensive than was Stanton's. 
It reaches from Porto Rico and Cuba on the 
East, to the Filippines, which are so far 
west that they are called east; and from 
Nome, Alaska, on the north to Panama and 
the Big Ditch on the south. That is an 
expansive jolj, one that needs an expansive 
man, — a great man to take care of it. 

But no matter how big the job may be, 
and Taft jobs have been growing bigger 
ever since his first one over thirty years 
ago, he has always proved himself to be 
a little bigger yet, and he has invariably 
made good. He has, one might say^ liter- 
ally devoured the work l^efore him and 
looked around for more. He has always 
had a healthy American appetite for work. 

His first job was before he was old 
enough to vote. He was in his father's 
office then, in Cincinnati, and made such 
a sturdy American fight for purity and 



clean dealing that he was appointed Assist- 
ant PTOseeiiting Attorney. He showed his 




mettle and won public approval. Four years 
later, when he was twenty-three, he became 
Collector of Internal Revenue. It was a good 



Secretary Taft 
has always 
been a good 
traveler 




job from the salary point of view, bringing 
him in about four hundred dollars a month, 
but after the young man had mastered the 
details and understood the work thoroughly, 



he resigned and re-entered his father's office. 
There were things better worth w^orking for 
than much money, he said, and we shall 
find he was American in doing this, if we 
read our country's history aright. 

How many young men would have looked 
out on life as 
Taft did then, 
seeing as clearly 
as he what was 
worthy of his 
best efforts ? 
His life was 
just beginning. 
He had won a 
name, he had 
social position, 
and his income 
from not very 
arduous work 
was forty -five 
hundred dollars 
a year. He was 
engaged to be 
married. Forty- 
five hundred 
dollars would 
look good to 
most young 
men in Taft's 




position, l)ut the sum does not seem to have 
appealed to him at all, nor to her whom he 
was to marry, for he turned from the easy 
work and easier money to the private prac- 
tice of law where the work was infinitely 
harder and the money was not only hard 
but intermittent. But the good old-time 
American spirit said "No" to the money — 
and Fate did the rest. 

Fate had little of private life in store for 
William Howard Taft. She had found him 
to be the right sort of timl)er, and she had 
decided he should be an American demon- 
stration. Soon, therefore, he was in the 
public eye again — this time as Assistant 
County Solicitor, which proved to be merely 
a step to a judgeship in the Superior Court, 
to which Governor Foraker appointed him, 
to fill out an unexpired term. 

Young Taft served out the remainder of 
the term and then stood for election at the 
polls. He won and continued on the Superior 
Bench for two years longer, when President 
Harrison appointed him Solicitor General of 
the United States. Taft was thirty-three 
years old then, and glad that he had not 
remained a revenue collector. Had it not 
been for his earnest Americanism, he might 
have been a collector yet. 

The Solicitor General's office was a busy 

8 



one in those days. There is ahvays some- 
thing doing there; but when Wilham Howard 
Taft arri\'ed in Washington there were big 



Secretary 
Taft on 
an army 
mule 




things on. The seal fisheries dispute was 
up before the Supreme Court of the United 
States, and British interests had retained 
Joseph Choate as counsel. There was good 
backing for the British, but the verdict was 
for the Americans. Taft won. He won again 
when the constitutionahty of the McKinley 
Bill came up. After this American triumph, 
the President appointed him a United States 
Circuit Judge. His father had sat on this 
same circuit before him, that of Michigan, 
Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee. One would 
think that even one of so impressive propor- 
tions as Mr. Taft would have room enough 
in these four states, of which the area is 
205,460 square miles, but soon he was away 
over the boundaries of these commonwealths 
and making a national reputation. His 
decisions in several labor cases sent his name 
around the world, advertising American prin- 
ciples of justice to all peoples, and these 
very decisions which were against the acts 
of certain labor organizations back in the 
90's are now recognized as embodying prin- 
ciples which union men vigorously uphold. 
That was a triumph for William Howard 
Taft which was emphatically American. 

President McKinley, a keen judge of men, 
realized that the four states of the Middle 
West, splendid though they were, did not 

10 




Secretary Taft and his brother Charles P. Taft, 
In a Canadian Calash 



afford sufficient scope for so big a man as 
Taft; therefore, when the time came, he 
offered the Judge the Presidency of the 
Fihppine Commission in 1900. 

For two reasons Taft said "No." ''He 
did not beheve," he said, "in the United 
States having possessions so far away — 

11 



America was large enough without them — 
and besides his aml^ition was toward the 
Supreme Bencli. 

"That is all very good/' replied the Presi- 
dent. "We had to take the Filippines, and 
someone has to look after them. They can- 
not be left to themselves. You go out there 
and when you come back you'll be the better 
Supreme Court judge for the experience." 

Even those who knew Judge Taft well 
thought that the Filippine job would l^e 
big enough for him; l:>ig enough for any 
man, one would say. He was to organize 
a government for an archipelago of fifteen 
hundred islands, inhabited by no one knew 
how many tribes, speaking languages that 
were utterly strange to the western world, 
islands where there was always warfare and 
much savagery, many religions and little 
education. He was to plant in these islands, 
ten thousand miles away, seeds of American 
civilization, and was to stay by while these 
seeds sprouted and grew up into plants, — 
hopingl}^, into trees. 

First, as President of the Filippine Com- 
mission, and then as Governor of the Islands, 
Taft planted the seed with prudence — Ameri- 
can seeds, c^uite different from any ever seen 
in the islands before; different, too, from 
the seeds others had planted in China, the 

12 



East Indies, India, Egypt, or the East coast 
of Africa; and in gardening the phints he 
did so well that the Filipinos grew to love 
him and to pray that he would stay with 




To his ohlldrpn — ho has thifp- -he Is just an older playfellow 

them always. This prayer he was pleased to 
heed once, and then a second time, for he 
refused twice the coveted seat on the Bench 
of the Supreme Court of the United States 

13 



that he might stay with his wards. He would 
not have taken the Secretaryship of War 
when President Roosevelt offered it to him 
had he not been assured that he would still 
have the Filippines under his especial care. 

He accepted the Cabinet position in 1903, 
and has been out to see "his people" twice 
since then. I.ast year's journey was espe- 
cially to fulfill the promise he had made 
that he would return to open their first 
National Assembly— their first formal step 
in becoming Americans. 

Such is the brief outline of the man who 
today is as adequate an illustration of 
Americanism as can be found among our 
citizens; a man whose continuous advance- 
ment must be most gratifying to himself as 
assuredly it should be to each and every one 
of his countrymen throughout this land. 




14 



CHAPTER II 



OF course I knew much about Secretary 
Taft before I saw him, or thought I 
did. I knew, anyway, what I have 
recounted in the preceding chapter, but I 
must acknowledge that my first personal 
impression of the man, when I met him 
in Minneapolis, was that he was a curi- 
osity. Not from his size at all, nor from 
his greatness in other ways, nor from his 
buoyant Americanism, l:)ut because he was 
the first pul)lic man I had ever encountered, 
or even heard of, who cared little for 
personal ad vertisement . 




Seth Bullock accompanied Mr. Taft In the Northwest 



I had trailed the War Secretary to the 
Northwest, where he had gone on an inspec- 
tion tour. I wished to accompany him. I 
was exphiining that the eastern papers w^re 
keenly interested in what he did and what 
he said, when he broke in with:— 

"I'll take your word for it, and beheve 
it is all as you say, but, to l)e quite frank, 
I'd rather vou would not come along." 

I had had experiences so different with 
other men prominently in the public eye, 
that these words of the Secretary astonished 
me greatly — I might almost say amazed me 
— and, of course, I was interested. I felt 
that I must study this new '' specimen " 
of statesman. 

That night I saw him at the great l3anciuet 
in Minneapolis, easily distinguishable l)y his 
amplitude. It was pleasant to note that his 
appetite was good, and that water was a 
beverage he was fond of. When the eating 
was over, the speeches began. The Secretary 
arose and smiled, then those near him also 
smiled. He smiled more, and in a minute, I 
dare say, there was not one of the five thou- 
sand faces which were turned eagerly toward 
him that had not [broadened into a welcom- 



ing grm. 



Mr. Taft's speech was not political. He 
merely told what "we Americans" were 

16 




TluMC was lui ycKturiiiK aliiHwt none — Ills liaiuls i-lasped across his aiiipli' 
stomarh, or on his hips, or In his pockets, or reposing against his midriff 



doing,- — first in the Filippines, and then in 
Panama and in Cuba and Porto Rico. There 
was no gesturing — almost none — for most of 
the time his hands were on his hips or in 
his pockets or reposing against his midriff. 
Sometimes he leaned a little forward to be 
emphatic. There was no spread-eagle ora- 
tory at all. No attempt at elocution. All 
was simple, straightforward, genial, kindly. 
Manifestly, the Secretary had established a 
bond of comradeship in the very beginning, 
and this bond held. 

Early the following morning the Secretary 
crossed the river to St. Paul with Senator 
Clapp and President Locke of the Commer- 
cial Club and joined General J. Franklin Bell, 
to review the troops at Fort Snelling. Mr. 
Taft was very thorough with his review. It 
was not mere formality with him by any 
means. He inspected everything down to the 
pack train with great care. When the review 
was over he climbed into a motor-car, and 
—though it was a piping hot day — put on an 
overcoat. Turning up the collar, he gave the 
word to start. 

"One moment, please," said the camera 
man. 

"All right," answered the Secretary, "but 
please be quick," and turning toward the 
camera, he tried to smile. It was the ghast- 

18 




with Mr. and Mrs. Stanley Washburn. 
A picture that Mr. Taft said he "rather liked" 

liest attempt to appear at ease that I ever 
saw; a weird, heart-rending effort, and with- 
out a vestige of the joyousness that w^e had 
seen in his countenance the night before. We 
only looked and wondered, for none of us 
knew of the mortal agony the Secretary was 
enduring l^ehind that courageous mask. 

Some thirty minutes later, when Mr. Taft 
had reached the house of a friend, where he 

19 



was'a'guestj'a bulletin was issued stating that 
though the Secretary was then resting easily, 
it would be necessary to cancel all of his im- 
mediate engagements. He was suffering from 
ptomaine poisoning, a bit of fish having done 
the mischief, and, as the Secretary said : " the 
larger the corporation, the greater the capa- 
city for pain." 

He had passed an uncomfortable night, 
and was a very sick man indeed when he 
attended the review, Init he went through 
that morning on sheer American grit. Nor 
was the grit by any means all gone, even 
when he was assured that his condition was 
dangerous, for, despite l)ulletins and the pro- 
tests of physicians, he persisted in putting 
in an appearance at the St. Paul banquet that 
night, though for only a few minutes. He 
could not bear to disappoint the upwards of 
nine thousand citizens assembled there to 
greet him. This brave courtesy, by the way, 
cost him three days in bed. 

The St. Paul toastmaster, introducing the 
Secretary, spoke of the guest of the evening 
coming late because, owing to his perennial 
youth, he still had trouble occasionally with 
that complaint of childhood, a little stomach- 
ache. Wliereupon Mr. Taft, arising rather 
slowly, begged to ask how a man of his dimen- 
sions could have a "little" stomach-ache! — a 

20 



remark which brought down the house— and 
though the Secretary Avas not able to make a 
speech, he made a friend of every man and 
w^oman in that great hall. 




Tlio Serrpt.iry and f'.i'li. .1. 1 raiikUii Boll rc\irum;; lrui)i)S at Fort tjnclUng, 

Minnesota 

A few days later I handed him a character 
l)h()tograpl) 1 had lakcn of him. It was of 
the same sort, of which 1 have nearly four 
thousand, that I have taken of President 
Roosevelt, President McKinley, Vice-Presi- 
dent Fairbanks and other statesmen. He 
looked it over carefuUy, passed it to a friend, 
and said : 

"I'm not (luite as big as I thought I was. 

21 



I was beginning to think I might be hke one 
of those moving vans my good friends, the 
cartoonists, would have the pubhc beheve I 
am sometimes mistaken for. I rather hke the 
picture." 

At one place on this tour the War Secre- 
tary was inspecting a cavalry post. A com- 
pany rode by in somewhat broken alignment, 
in sympathy, evidently, with its captain who 
was manifestly badly rattled. The trouble 
proved contagious, for the officer of the day 
who rode by Mr. Taft, also became confused, 
spurring this way and that and giving hyster- 
ical and contradictory orders. The Secretary 
understood at once, and looking over the 
parade ground, said : 

"Never mind. Major, that's only human 
nature. We won't let trifles bother us." 

Not many days later this same major was 
journeying northward with Mr. Taft and was 
standing on the rear platform while the Sec- 
retary was making a speech to a small but 
enthusiastic crowd. "In this beautiful state 
of Iowa," Mr. Taft was saying, when the 
Major, having more regard for precision of 
statement than for the Secretary's feelings, 
leaned forward and whispered very audibly: 
"South Dakota, Mr. Secretary, — South Da- 
kota. We've been in South Dakota the last 
four hours." 

22 



Since the above incidents occurred I have 
traveled with Mr. Taft quite around the world 
and enough more miles here in America to 
go around again. I find the genial Secretary 
as thorough an American as I have ever 
known and the best traveler. Traveling with 
men identified with the nation's politics has 
been my principal business for a dozen years, 
so the reader will understand that I rate the 
Secretary high. He has the diplomacy of the 
late Secretary Hay, the energy of President 
Roosevelt, and the conservatism of McKinley. 
Secretary Taft is as good a voyager as you 
will find in all this land of magnificent dis- 
tances. There is not a drummer, not a bag- 
man that can beat him, and as for the other 
folk with whom long journeys by rail are so 
important a part of their day's occupation, 
- — I mean the politicians — they are not in his 
class at all. 

Men who travel much, as a rule, find many 
annoyances on board the train — find them as 
though they were looking for them and had 
to have them. I know, for I have been on 
over a score of "progresses" up and down 
and across the country during political cam- 
paigns, with men of national reputation, and 
I have repeatedly seen how the little things 
annoy the big fellows. But with Secretary 
Taft it is different. He is not looking for 

23 



annoyances. He does not expect them. He 
would not know an annoyance if he saw one. 
He would have to l)e introduced and have it 
explained to him; and the explanation would 
he the occasion for his sayin"-, "Ha — ha, that 
reminds me, — " and then those al)out the 
Secretary would hear a story — a rattler — 
clean and full of American humor, whereupon 
the annoyance, like the l3oy upon the burn- 
ing deck, would l^ecome non-existent. 

Secretary Taft does not owe his accom- 
plishment to long prac- 
tice, though he is so 
great a traveler. Nor is 
it due to study and care- 
ful preparation. He has 
not studied how to tra\^el, 
nor has he ever bothered 
about preparation. He 
travels j ust as he breathes, 




<_)n till' real" 
platform. 
Huw the 
Secretary 
thought over his 
speeches and 
pondered the 
problems of his 
great olflee 



Though It vvus a 

pipliiK hot day. 

he put on 

;iii overcoat 




just as ho eats and slee})s, that is, naturally, 
as any man whose nerves are right and who 
has never liad reason to suspect that he was 
possessed of a di.<»esti\-e apparatus, performs 
these el(Mn(Milal acts. 

No, the trifles that are such an irritation 
to others are not ap})arent to the great Sec- 
retary. He is comf()rtal)ly, e\'en joyously, 
ol)livious of them. lie boards a car just as 
any other al)le-l)0(lied citizen of the United 
States boards it. And it is a car that is for 
the use of anv other citizen as much as it 



25 



is for him, for he does not care for specials. 
There is never any exclusiveness about his 
mode of traveUng, What is good enough for 
Messrs. Smith, Jones, and Robinson is good 
enough for him. It is true that he usually 
asks for a lower berth, but almost any man 
will do that. He finds his number himself, 
unless the porter is speedier than one was 
ever known to l^e, gets into the two-thirds 
of the seat nearest the window, pulls out a 
book or a magazine and the day's papers, 
and is absolutely at peace. He has not taken 
the whole of the section for himself, and is 
as pleased as possible to have another good 
fellow on the seat opposite, for a chat and 
an exchange of some of the latest good ones. 

On these occasions of chance acquaintance 
he is free and natural, and talks on any and 
every subject except politics. He never seeks 
to convert a casual companion nor to impress 
him in any way. He has no interest in him 
other than that of good-fellowship and good- 
will. He is not forward nor imperative; only 
hearty, and he is ready for the first call when 
the man from the dining car comes down the 
aisle. 

"Shall I reserve a table for you, Mr. Sec- 
retary?" asks the head of the sustenance 
section of the train. "Not at all, not at 
all," replies Mr. Taft. "I'll be in on time. 

26 



You may always trust me for that. Thank 
you just the same," and in he goes, to take 
a fourth seat, perhaps, and spending forty 
minutes very pleasantly, he leaves the table 
with three new adherents for his campaign, 
to say nothing of the chef and the darkey 
who had waited upon the unreserved table. 

The Secretarv looks after himself all along 
the route. He lavs out his own clothes, and 
frequently shaves himself. A less jovial person 
might look dangerous with the instrument he 
wields so dexterously round about his coun- 
tenance. It is of magnificent proportions, as 
is fitting for a man of such distinction. It 
is also keen and even-tempered — which is 
fitting, too. Evidently shaving is a pleasant 
occupation to the Secretary when traveling, 
as it does not interrupt the flow of smaU 
talk that others busy in the wash room may 
take part in while he is there. 

Although Secretary Taft does not use 
tobacco, he has no objection to chatting 
amongst the smokers, just as he does not 
criticise the man who, as Solomon allowed 
was proper, takes a little for his stomach's 
sake. lie is broad and tolerant, and very 
human. He might take advantage of his 
remarkable ability as a story-teller to gather 
the Ijoys around him, hand out cigars from 
a pocket of purposeful capacity, and also 

27 



"set 'em up" till the small hours of the 
morning, — but he does not. He never plays 
to the gallery, nor does he play for popu- 
larity in any vulgar sense. The limelight has 
to seek him if it wants him. He will not 
go to it. He never tries to be on the plat- 
form to advertise his presence on a train. 
Nor does he hunt out the press men to ask 
them to let the world know that he is there. 
Ostentation and Secretary Taft are not on 
speaking terms. His tips are unostentatious, 
too. They are just what the ordinary trav- 
eler might give to those who are of service. 
He might hand waiters five-dollar-bills and 
write his name across them, if he chose, with- 
out fear that doing so would luring him to 
the poorhouse; l)ut to do so never occurred 
to him. Nor will he indulge in any such 
extravagances, even after he has read this 
article. He is not that sort of man. 

He is outspoken, frank, altogether fearless. 
Men lean over and whisper to him sometimes. 
But in the reply there is no whispering. The 
whisperer will not need an ear trumpet to 
gather in the gist of the Secretary's remarks. 
He could hear him across the table, and prob- 
ably he will not whisper any more. Surely 
not to this man who cares nothing for per- 
sonal advertisement. 



28 




A Glimpse uf the Taft Summer Home 



CHAPTiai III. 




Iv. TAFT is the happiest man of his 
size in all America when summer 
comes 'round. Not because summer 
means a holiday for him (there are no holi- 
days for secretaries of wnv), but because his 
family will bo with him; Miss Helen coming 
up from ]^i-}ii Mawr and Robert from Yale, 
and he will see each and all the members 
every day, besides havin<!; his ))rothers and 
their families near him, too. Then the Sec- 
retary is happy all over, which means im- 
mensely happy. 

The annual foregathering of Tafts takes 
place at Murray Bay. Murray Bay is up 

29 



in Canada, on the north bank of the St. 
Lawrence, in the Province of Quebec. One 
can reach there by floating down the river 
from Montreal in a canoe, or more slowly by 




The Summer Home of William Howard Tatt, facing tlie St. Lawrence 

following the regular route so far as it goes, 
from Montreal to Quebec, then on down the 
river and across to Riviere du Loup, then 
across again and up the river once more to 
the landing in front of the Manoir Richelieu, 
the only absolutely perfect caravansary that 
I know of, which is in Murray Bay. From 
the Manoir, a few miles up and down in a 
calash — and the Taft summer home is in 
sight. 

The house is ancient — one of the oldest 
frame houses in Canada — and age has only 
added to its homeliness, so that to look at 

30 



it is to feel the cockles of one's heart grow 
warm. Age has added to the attractiveness 
of the grounds about it, too. They are just 
as Nature laid them out, and they have had 
time to grow. They are a delight to look 
upon from the gable windows jutting from 
the shingle roof. Such ornaments as the old 
house has within are very largely from the 
FilippineSj testimonials mostly of affection 
and high regard from those distant islands. 
Manifestly, it is a place for wholesome out- 




Tlie Suiuiiicr Hume or Charlos I'. Tun aUjolns Uiat of the War .Sei-ivtary. The 
two brothers freQuenlly meet here and are joined by Henry Taft 

door life, for recreation and for hard work, 
and Mr. Taft is keen for l)oth. He gets great 
satisfaction from the fact that he does not 
have to "dress." To be comfortable all day 
long is so different from Washington, such a 

31 



grateful change from the tours and their 
unending functions. 

On Sundays Mr. Taft dons city clothes. 
Six days in flannels and one in blue serge 
is the routine. On Sundays he goes to the 
Union Church, where anyone and everyone 
is welcome, irrespective of faith or creed. 
The good-fellowship of the congregation is 
conspicuous after worship, when everybody 
shakes hands with everybody else, and the 
War Secretary, whose title should be Great 
Keeper of the Olive Branch, chats pleasantly 
with all. 

Sitting in soulful silence, after the Sunday 
service, the Secretary rests. One can see 
youth returning to him then. The mystery of 
his extraordinary vigor vanishes. Nature does 
the work she always will, if only we will give 
her opportunity, and here, near to her heart, 
in Canada, the Secretary gives her free reign. 

But on week days, what a difference! Mr. 
Taft begins at seven in the morning then, 
dictating to his secretary until nearly nine, 
when he breakfasts leisurely, quite as Mr, 
Fletcher would surely approve. A little later, 
whether the weather be fair or foul, he is 
off with his golf clul)s to the links a mile 
and a half away — always on foot, too. Over 
the hills for eighteen holes he goes, and three 
hours later he is under the shower, saying 

32 



what a fine thing it is to be aUve. He may 
have a sandwich now, or he may not, but he 
surely has a secretary and has the War 
Department going ail the afternoon. Then 
supper, which is ample, and the evening with 



Sccrrtarj 
Taft and 
Mrs. Har- 
lan rctiirn- 
ln!< from 
the Union 
Church at 
Murray 
Bay 




Mrs. Taft and the children, until it is time 
to go to the rooms above with their gabled 
windows. There the clear air and the ozone 
from the hills make anything but slumber 
quite impossible. 

"It was not ever thus," savs Mr. Taft. 




After a luuulshake all around the Secretary leaves the Churchyard 
grounds for home 

"I remember when we first came here — a 
whole caroro of Tafts — twentv-one of us — ■ 
fifteen years ago, we had nothing but a cigar- 
box of a house with half a dozen rooms in 
it, to hold us all. Maybe 3^ou think they 
didn't say things to me! I was the one who 

34 



persuaded them all to try this resort, and 
in the usual happy family manner they told 
me what they thought of my judgment." 

"I remember those days, too," joins in 
Charles P. Taft. "Will was in the baby- 
raising business then, and in the middle of 
the night of course the babies would cry. 
All Taft babies have vociferating apparatus 




The Whltp Pine Desk and Summer Workroom oJ Secretary Taft 

and attachments quite complete. The par- 
titions ))etween the rooms were thin, — the 
usual summer cottage partitions — so, in order 
not to disturb our sleep any more than was 
unavoidable, A\'ill used to carry his wee ones 
out to the cool night air and pace up and 
down the board walk with them. I can still 
remember the sight of him in his night-shirt. 



35 




'Charlie's face 
brightened at 
once tiirough a 
veil of bread 
crumbs 



It was worth being waked out of my sleep 
to see." 

The Secretary laughs and says: "Charles 
is very kind to put it that way. It eases my 
conscience, and I've no doubt at all that I 
was a picture." 

36 



There is absolutely no false pride about 
the man. He can see himself as others, — 
even the cartoonist — sees him, and laughs as 
heartily as anyone at a joke on himself. No 
pomposity; no demagogue. 

An incident illustrates this: The Secretary 
was sitting on a shaded bench overlooking 
the St. Lawrence River one day, his mind 
deep in some war papers which the govern- 




riic Secretary's Outdoor Oflice 



ment li.-id fonvardod him from Washington. 
Looking up, he espied an old woman standing 
on his porch. 

*'You spikka Inglees?" she asked. Little 
but the French ( anadian patois is spoken at 
Murray Bay. 

"No," answered "M'sieu Taft," as the 
natives up there c[dl him; "we want noth- 
ing today." She did not understand. 

Shaking his head vigorously, he repeated: 

37 



"No want!" Then he went back to his 
papers. In about five minutes a shadow fell 
across his table, and this time a one-e^^ed man 
with farm truck was seeking his attention. 

"Well, what have you got?" queried Mr. 
Taft in his easy tones. 

"Chickee, peegee (pigeons), potatoes — " 
began the man. The Secretary laid down 
his documents and went over to the vendor's 
wagon. There he poked around among the 
stuff, but he did not find anything that he 
liked, and so he called to Mrs. Taft to come 
and tell the man in French that there was 
"nothing doing." 

Perambulating markets are not the only 
interruptions that come upon Mr. Taft while 
he is busy with the future of the Filippines, 
the perennial insurrection of Cuba, or the 
tariff and the Porto Ricans, — there is Charlie. 
Charlie demands attention, and he usually 
gets it. 

Charlie Taft had been gnawing into a loaf 
of bread. He had a crumby face, and he 
wanted his sister to come out for a game of 
tennis, but she would not. "Never mind, 
Charlie, Pll play tennis with you," said the 
War Secretary, as he patted his httle son 
affectionately on the back. 

The youngster's face brightened at once 
through its veil of bread crumbs. 

38 





i 




^■[ 


The 
Secretarj- 
laid down 
his docu- 
ments and 
went over 
to the 
vender's 
buggy 






1 




^fw 


y ' 


fl 




ft i %« 


f 


1 




T 


^B _^^^ri 


^j 






-^^A 

^^^^^^H 


^HP^^^ ''^1 






B/ 


1 a 



'' All rio-ht, Pupa," he shouted. '^Yoii can't 
play veiy good tennis, but you're an awful 
lot of fun." And the two boys went hand 
in hand to the court in front of the house. 



39 



That one of the boys had been a judge and 
was now Secretary of War made no differ- 
ence to the other one. He had found a play- 
mate who was "an awful lot of fun." 

Charlie, who is ten years old, was at the 
head of his class — almost. When asked about 
it, he said: "Oh, yes, I'm at the head of 
my class, all but a girl." 

The Taft idea of exercise and still more 




Charles Phelps Taft, the only member of the Taft family who can keep up 
with the Secretary at play 

exercise is as thorough as the Roosevelt idea 
in this regard. The young Tafts play golf 
and tennis very well indeed, and recently a 
nephew rowed in the Yale crew that won 
against Harvard. 

Speaking of the Secretary's sayings about 
boys in general, some one said to him that 

40 



. Taft 
Is her 
eisure 
read- 
n thf 
mirifr 
house 




yoiiiifi; Brown was a fatalist and about ready 
to [)low his brains out. 

^'Why?" askod Mr. Taft. 

"Well," said his informant, "I don't know. 

41 



But I've often heard him say the game 
wasn't worth the candle." 

"I see," said the Secretary, thoughtfuUy. 
"Well, those folks to whom the game isn't 
worth the candle are generally the ones who 
are burning the candle at both ends." 




Robert Tatt and WUUam Howard Taft, Jr. 



smm 



The (;i)lf Club at \rurray Bay 



("HAPTER IV. 




'S I have said, the Secretary of War 
works liard. Results tell that, and 
he j:)lays every bit as hard as he 
works — a little harder, if that is possible, 
and also with admiraljle results. 

To anyone who might be looking forward 
to a few days of recreation on the Secretary's 
playground, I would recommend at least two 
months of hard physical training. Unless 
he is in condition, one day's outing with Mr. 
Taft will put the average man out of com- 
mission for a week. 

At Murray Bay the Secretary plays golf 
and tennis, froUcs with his children, takes 

43 



long walks over the fine Canadian roads, and 
occasionally puts out fires. He does not 
shoot. He never shot anything in his life. 
Though he is head of the War Department, 
he does not believe in killing things. 

Justice Harlan of the United States Su- 
preme Court also summers at Murray Bay. 
The Justice enjoys golf as much as does the 
Secretary with whom he is very chummy, 
though he is nearly a quarter of a century 




Three Taft Brothers, Henry, William, Charles — uii the Unka 
at Murray Bay 

older. He also enjoys a joke as much as 
his somewhat stouter neighbor. 

One morning the Secretary came up on 
the green where the Justice was jumping up 
and down to coax a ball in that was hover- 
ing on the very edge of the first hole. 



44 




Till' \\ ur ScLi'itary and tlic Cadiilos. The lads are fresher 
now than they will be later 

"Here, Taft!'' cried the Justice, "come on! 
You jump. That will do the business." 

Perhaps it was when Justice Harlan, who 
hails from Kentucky, was looking round Mur- 
ray Bay for mint and some of the things 
that go with it that Secretary Taft told this 
story. 

45 




to 



"Justice Harlan used 
have a sort of valet 



clown South, before the 
War, you know/' said 
Mr. Taft. "He was a 
darkey, and his name 
was Jackson. Jackson 
never used the first per- 
son singular — he always 
said 'we/ and he had 
an eye for the health of 
'Marse John.'" (here 
the Secretary pointed at 
the Justice) " and he believed 
in moderation. 

Well, one night Marse John 
came home in the rain. He 
was drenched and felt he 
needed something. He knew 
there would be a protest, but 
he called out : ' Hey, you Jack- 
son! I'm wet to the skin and 
cold all through; bring 
me something to warm 
me up.' 

" Jackson went off 
wagging his head in 
protest, but came back with a toddy. 

"'That's a powerful weak drink for a man 
like me,' said Marse John. 

46 



Watching the ball 



"'It hain't more'n 
moderately strong, 'Jack- 
son admitted. 'Yo' see, 
Marse John, I kinder 
'lowed as how we was 
taperin' off.' " 

Of course we laughed, 
and the Justice, rubbing 
his chin reflectively, 
asked : 

"Did I ever tell you 
al )0U t the m a r v e 1 o u s 
drive my distinguished 
friend the Secretary of 
Wai" made one morning 
on these very links of 
Murrav Bav? No'.' 

"Well, I was with him 
at the time and that 
establishes the veracity 
of what I am about to 
declare. Come up near," 
he said, turning toward 
a newspaper rnnii who 
was present; ' I want to 
be sure you liear the 
figures correctly." 
"Yes," broke in the Secretary, "he might 
forget them and have to make them up all 
over again." 




Waiting for Justice Harhiiul on 
the links at Murray Bay 



47 



"For, what I want," continued the Justice, 
ignoring the interruption, "is to get onto 
the golf page of the Sunday papers. To do 
that I must adhere to the trutli strictly^ the 




Now for a 
drive! 



On the links 

at 

Murray Bay 



truth, the whole truth and nothing but the 
truth. 

"But, as I was saying, this rolly-polly 
youngster over here — Taft I mean — was just 
finishing up a bit behind me, as usual; ahem, 
three or four behind me, if I remember rightly. 
It was growing dark, and he was in a hurry 
to complete the score and yet anxious not 
to be too far behind. He made a terrific drive 
for the last hole, one that made the ground 
ripple like the surface of a lake when a boul- 
der drops into it. You all have noticed that 
often. Then he plunged on, riding the rip- 
ples toward the hole and looking for the 
little white ball. 

"'By Jove, I struck a good one that time,' 
he sang out, as he went further and further 
and no ball in sight. 'I believe I made the 
green.' 

"And, sure enough, just then the caddy 

called out: 

"'Here you are, Judge, right in the hole,' 
and lo and behold! when Taft looked in, 
there was the ball as snug as you please, 
and Taft began to turn handsprings for joy. 
I confess I thought it was pretty good, too, 
and I went back to the last tee, to see if I 
couldn't do something like that myself. I 
knew, of course, it was a fluke, a 6ne-in-a 
million drive, but I was bound to try. When 

49 




The finish of the game — Henry Tatt comparing the scores 



I got to the tee I understood. There was 
Taft's ball just where he had set it up. His 
club hadn't even grazed it. The rest of the 
story the caddie can explain." 




\fter oluliteen holes 
The Secretary s enjuytiieiil continues though the game is over 



Though Mr. Taft does most of his recreat- 
ing up at Murray Bay, he enjoys being out 
of doors wherever there is opportunity. He 
did a lot of golfing in the Filippines for 
instance, besides going over hills and moun- 
tains on foot, and in Yellowstone National 
Park he made the most of his opportunities 
to observe the marvelous. He and Charlie 




Justice Harlan 



Charles Phelps Taft 



52 





romped together like two youngsters, and 
the larger of the '^boys" enjoyed the froHc 
as much as the other, every bit. They went 
to the "Devil's Bath Tub," where Charlie 
tried to photograph the party. He is just 
visible in the middle of the pieutre I took, 
sighting his camera o\'er the sulphur-crusted 
rail of the fence. 

They watched the silver-tip bears, too, 
which roam socially in the neighborhood 
of Canon Hotel and reheve the garbage man 
of considerable work by appropriating refuse, 
which they carry away in their capacious 
interiors. These bears never retreat or show 
alarm unless they have word of the presence 
in the park of a certain exalted personage 
who wears eye-glasses. 





"Come on I" said the leailcr, "It Isn't Teddy, tfs only the 
Secretary ot War " 




The Kecretary 



Mrs. Taft Uen. Allen 



At Turquois Pool the Secretary held Charlie 
over the edge, where the lad could test the 
temperature of the water, which he found to 
be warmer than it looked. He declined an 
invitation to bathe therein, having a young- 
ster's prejudice against boiled boy. 

The mule teams which took the party 
through in record time were a source of 

54 



joy to Charlie. He rode up front always 
alongside the "mule skinner/' the man with 
the W'hip, who could, were he that sort of 
person, easily flay the animals with the terri- 
ble lash he wields. He explained to Charlie, 
however, that he used it merely to keep the 
flies off his pets. He pointed out a fly to 
the youngster one afternoon as the party was 
going up hill, and said: 

"Just you watch, kid, and see me pick that 




TaKiiij; tlic 
Teinpcralure 




Spiiatiir Carter Secretary Taft 

M. Young, Superintendent G. W. Childs, Supt. of Transportation 

insect off the leader's left ear"; then out over 
the leader's head there was a report such as 
the old muzzle-loader made in the days of 
Leather-Stocking. 

" What'd I tell yer!" said the mule skinner. 
I can do that every time." 

"Whew!" exclaimed Charlie, "That's a 
dead fly all right." 

"They die instantly I hit 'em/' replied the 
driver. 

Fish abound in Yellowstone, though at 
times they are a little shy. Charlie had 
heard of catching a fish in the lake, and, 
without moving even one step, swing it round 
into a pool where it would be boiled alive. 
Charlie spent three hours, nearly, at the edge 
of the lake, for he has remarkable persistence, 

56 



but the fishes e\'idently had been forwarned 
and would not cany out the part of the pro- 
gram CharHe had allotted to them in his 
''stunt." Finally, it being well past lunch 
time, he returned regretfully to the Lake 
House. 

"Did you cook a fish, my son?" asked the 
SecretaiT. 

"No sir," replied Charlie, "but the sun 
cooked me all right." 




A Cooker 
Cooking 



57 



CHAPTER V. 



Vw^E were on board at Seattle and glad 
\ I / ^^ ^^ there — looking over the rail at 
^-^^ the crowd and talking of our experi- 
ences thus far on our tour of the world. 

Several bits of conversation were wafted 
to us from the w^harf as we were cast- 
ing loose. 

"It's just like launching a Dreadnought, 
ain't it?" queried a bystander, as Taft went 
up the Alinnesota/s gangplank, shaking hands 
and waving his last adieus. 

"Reminds me of a great big, fine-looking 
fighting-ship, Taft does," remarked another. 
"He ain't getting worried about little things; 
you don't see him unlimbering his guns for 




every little oysterboat that cuts up didos. 
But he'll be the hv^ thing in a big scrap, you 
mark my words. I've seen the 'good-natured 
giant' kind before. They're all smiles when 
it's smiling time; but when it comes time 
for business, they can do the work of three 
men. Yes, sirree! And Big Bill Taft is that 
kind, too." 

With a send-off such as that, from a crowd 
numbering several himdreds, the Secretary 
of War naturally l)egan his long voyage in a 
pleasant frame of mind. 

Secretary Taft is himself a good sailor. In 
his hours of ease the Secretary had all sorts 
of fun. He climbed ventilators on a wager 
with Ambassador O'Brien; he inspected every 
part of the steamer in company with the 
various employees; he went down into the 
Asiatic steerage and he spent three hours and 
a half in the hold, talking to the engineers, 
stokers and firemen; he passed hours in the 
gymnasium astride bucking horses and other 
electrical appliances, reducing his weight and 
taking his exercise. He attended all the 
sailors' concerts, taking interest and enjoy- 
ment in their jokes, their "coon songs" and 
their dances, and before he left the ship he 
was the warm friend of every man jack on 
board. 'Il 

Secretary Taft celebrated his birthday, or 

59 



Mr. Tatt on a 
wager climbed 
throvigh a 
ventilator 




rather all on board the Mi7inesota celebrated 
that happy anniversary on the fifteenth of 
last September in latitude 41° N. and 137° W. 



60 



This is a wet locality, and it was thought by 
some to explain why all of the first cabin 
passengers drank the Secretary's health in 
water. 

A goodly number of presents had appeared 
on the breakfast table in the morning, bear- 
ing greetings and good wishes from all the 




Ambassador O'Brien, Mrs. Taft, Secretary Tatt and Captain Austin 
on tlie brldee of the Minnesota , 

Tafts tliat had the honor of kinship with the 
Chief of the War Department. Either they 
came l)y wireless or there had been collusion 
somewhere. Personal friends had remem- 
bered the day, too, and were evidently in 
on the collusion as well as the relatives. And 
besides gifts, there were delegations, and 
games and speeches. 

In reply to several of the speeches in his 
honor, after dinner that evening, Mr. Taft, 

61 



who had been re- 
peatedly referred to 
as the next Presi- 
dent, told a story. 
"WeOhioans/'he 
said," are reputed to 
have a fondness for 
office — and this re- 
minds me of Pete 
Robinson who came 
to a certain Ohio 
town right after 
election, looking for 
a job. He put up 
at the best hotel at 
first, but w^hen his 
funds grew low^ he 
moved to lodgings 
and by and by to the 
cheapest lodgings, but no job came, and being 
at the end of his funds, he saddled his old 
mare and started back for the hills. Passing 
the best hotel on his way, one of his former 
acquaintances hailed him with 'Hello, Pete, 
where you goin'?' 'Home,' answered Pete, 
and, after a pause — 'Say boys, you all know 
I've been hanging around here after a job 
^and now I hear the job should seek the 
man. If any of you see a job out on the 
search — you might just mention that you saw 

62 




me going along the road toward mj^ farm up 
in the hills, and that I was riding dern slow.' " 

Captain Austin arranged for a special dinner 
in the Secretary's honor. In commemoration 
of the event a large cake was baked ; and, need- 
less to remark, the voracious eye of Charlie 
spied it. A few hoiu's later the steward was 
surprised to learn, from the grave lips of the 
boy himself, that, marvelous to relate, he 
had been looking into his diary or the family 
Bible, or the captain's log, and had discovered 
that he, too, was due to have a birthday, 
and that it came on the eighteenth. 

A cake was promised him; and then the 
captain took a hand. He proposed to shuffle 
the calendai- around a bit and discard a day, 
just to show the Pacific that he was a regu- 



Cliarllc Taft 

and Ills chums 

In a throp- 

legged race 




lar dyed-in-the-hide captain and that he 
meant to do the square thing by the Orient 
and the Occident and ah concerned. 

"Sometimes I get a chance to stick in a 
day," he remarked, "and if there are enough 




64 



energetic missionaries on board, I succumb 
to the inevitable law of supply and demand 
and hang up a couple of Sundays in the same 
week. But this time I'll have to drop out 
one day — and (with a long look at Charlie) 
that day will be Friday the eighteenth." 

With this the son of the Secretary went 
off into a corner and did some thinking. He 
was aljout as gloomy a boy as could be 
found anywhere on the Pacific. As he now 
figured it, he would not only lose a cake and 
a birthday, but he would lose a whole year 
out of his life as well! He had left school 
with the distinct understanding that he was 




Mr. and Mr-. II. M. lOvan.s iif Kansas City, wlio journpyod with Mr. Taft to the 
lillppiiics. .\I r. i;vans went t(i the l-'ar Ka.st to inve.stij,'ate banking conditions. 




Five miles each 

morning 

Mr. Taft never 

misses eonsti- 

lutional 



nine years and ten months old; and that he 
was to be ten years of age on the eighteenth 
of August. And here an ogre in the shape 
of a common or garden sea-captain comes 
along and monkeys with the calendar, intend- 
ing to copper the one day out of the whole 

66 



year that was of supreme importance to him. 
He needed the year badly, needed it as only 
a boy of nine could possil)ly need a year. 

He worried and did mental arithmetic and 
sums with the chalk on the hurricane deck 
persistently, until, on the night of the seven- 
teenth, he was able to show the captain that 
the morrow, the eighteenth, would be the 
day for crossing the one hundred and eightieth 
meridian, wherefore no man — not even a 
steamship captain — had a right to change a 
date or a day on such an occasion. The 
situation was ethical rather than nautical. 
The captain gave in, acknowledged the corn, 
and Chai"lie Taft ate a foiu-poimd cake to 
celebrate his duly-accredited ten years. 

In spite of all his ocean travel. Secretary 




I';irt or tlio palatial suite on the President Grunt 



Taft sa3^s he has never been seasick in his 
Ufe. He lives while al)oard ship on an 
almost perfect schedule. At seven o'clock 
he arises and takes 
a cokl shower-bath; 
from eiii'ht until nine 
he and Mrs. Taft and 
their youngest son, 
Charlie, have break- 
fast ; at nine-thirty 
he starts upon his 
walk a r o u n d the 
deck, counting- the 
laps upon his fingers 
until he has done 




Secretary Taft and General Clarence R. Edwards on the S. S. I'Tcsidenl Grant 



six miles. He thinks over his speeches 
and official reports as he walks. At eleven 
o'clock, covered with perspiration, he takes 
another shower and lies down for a nap. 
At twelve-thirtv every one is eatin^*- lunch- 
eon. He knows it, and comes out with 
his secretary and a pile of l)Ooks and papers, 
to begin a three-hour grind at his documents, 
messages to Washington, his speech l)efore 
the Filippinc Convention and other serious 




Judge Burke Secretary Tuft JCaplain Austin Ambassador O'Hrk'ii 

governmental work. He is dieting himself, 
and omits luncheon. Although he is a mar- 
velously large man, Taft has very little " dead 
weight" upon him; he is mostly muscles. He 
doesn't want to get fat if he can help it. 
Therefore lie eats only a cracker or two at 
noon. After his official work he goes back to 
his room and reads law or a magazine or a 
book from the ship's library. 

69 




Hallie Erminle 
Uivcs-Wlieeler 
and Secretary 
Taft on S. S. 
/'resident Grant 
Mrs. Wlieeler 
accompanied the 
Taft party across 
tlie great Trans- 
Siberian R. R. 
from Vladivostok 



Late in the afternoon he goes on deck to 
play shufHelward or to watch C'harhe, and 
toward half-past six he dresses for dinner. 
There is no ceremony about his entrance into 
the dining room ; he never keeps the orchestra 
waiting. 

At dinner he is merry. After the meal 
he usually reads or studies or writes until 
midnight. Though on shipboard, and cut off 
from general communication with the outside 
world, he manages to accomplish considerable 
diplomatic l)usiness; thus on his arrival at 
Yokohama he was joined by Judge Wilfley 

70 



of Shanghai and a numl^er of business men 
from China, who talked over the industrial 
system there and gave him some pointers of 
value to the United States and her policies 
in the Far East. Bankers made the trip 
across to Hongkong with him, hoping for 




Mr. Alir;t:ii.-- 



.Sfcri'lary liill 



Mis. Abrains .Judge Wiltlcy 



a (juiet half-hour's conversation when the 
decks were clear, lie talked law with law- 
yers, and i^olitics with the politicians. 

From Seattle to the Filippines his time 
was much occupied in preparing the speech 
he would deliver at the opening of the First 
Natiouid Assembly. After he had visited 

71 




The temporary War department on the iS. S. Prtsidcnt Grant 



Manila and had delivered his frank, out- 
spoken message to the Islanders, he put in 
all his time, from Manila to Vladivostok, 
writing his huge report on all that happened 
in the Far Eastern islands, and, so far was 
this report from being completed when he 
left Berlin three weeks later, that he used 
most of the thirteen days it took to cross 
the Atlantic in finishing the work. Mr. Fred 
Carpenter, his secretary, had been left behhid 

72 



in Germany for a two weeks' vacation. Mr. 
Taft wrote out the report in long-hand. 

Mrs. Taft, once seeing him hxl^oring over 
this document, said: 

"Will, why on earth don't you quit?" 

The big man looked up with a laugh: 
"Well," he answered, "it's a good policy 
to make your reports extra long, so folks 
won't read them and find out your mis- 
takes." 

Someljody asked liim then if that rule 
applied to the President's message, and he 
merely shrugged his shoulders and laughed 
again. 

On the way back across the x\tlantic an 
incident occurred which showed the diplo- 
matic suavity of the Ijig war chief. The 
sailors of the President Grant were to have 
a benefit, and the Secretary was asked to 
make a fifteen-minute talk. 

At the appointed time he stepped into 
the salon and said: 

"I want to give the other passengers here 
a bit of advice. Never put Honorable or 
Reverend or Doctor before your name when 
you are traveling, for there is always some 
ferret-eyed soul hanging around who will 
book you as a prominent man good for a 
fifteen-minute talk for the benefit of the 
sailors or the heathen Chinese or something 

73 




Mrs. Taft and 
(^harlie on the 
S. S. President 
Ontnt. Just in 
fur a cup of 
iH.iilllon after 
a walk 



— and the chances are you haven't anything 
to talk about, to boot. 

"For instance, as soon as I had promised 
to speak here tonight Mrs. Taft asked : ' Why, 
what can you do? You can't sing or dance. 
You can't play any musical instrument — 
remember this is a concert, not a political 
convention.' 

" ' I might tell them al^out my travels,' said I. 

74 



"'Why those people aren't interested in 
^'o^r travels; thev are all travelers them- 
selves!' she answered. 'What! Not inter- 
ested in the time I — '" and here he went off 
into a long and amusing story of his adven- 
tures in the Filippines. "'And not inter- 
ested in the time we had at the Imperial 
Palace in Tokio, when I — '" and here he 
detailed some of his experiences while in 
Japan. "'And wouldn't they be glad to 
hear how, when I was at Tsarskoe-Selo I — '" 
and here he went off into an intimate account 
of some of his Russian adventures. 

The crowd was laughing and following him 
with great interest through it all; it took 
something Hke twenty-five minutes or half 
an hour, and only at the end did every one 
realize that the Secretary, while ostensibly 
deploring the fact that w^e would not be 
interested in hearing the story of his travels, 
had actually been giving it to us all the time! 



75 



CHAPTER VI. 




[R. TAFT is far and away the greatest 
traveler of any man now holding 
piil)lic office in the United States, 
and what is more remarkable, he is the 
greatest family man, of all om* statesmen. 
To hold this double record seems impossible, 
l)ut the impossible has been natural and in- 
evitable for Mr. Taft almost from the l)egin- 
ning of his career. His life of continuous 
achievement illustrates this. 

Most public men of the day have no home 
life at all. The demands of government ser- 
vice make it difficult for a man to be more 
than a lodger in his home after his career in 
Washington begins. For this reason many 




public men do not take their families with 
them to Washington, but leave them behind, 
preferring to have a few uninterrupted days 
of visiting with them from time to time, rather 
than the succession of peeps which is all that 
Washington affords. 

But ^Ir. Taft has always managed to have 
his familv with him ever since he had a familv 
to care for. Wherever he has been, there has 
been his home ; not off in some distant town or 
city, separated from him by days of railway 
travel. His family has kept him company 
from Cincinnati to Washington and ^Murray 
Bay to the North West, to Panama, Cul^a 
and Porto Rico, to Honolulu, Tokio, Manila, 
Madivostok, Moscow, St. Peters})urg, Berlin 
and Paris. 

Two of the children, Helen and Robert, 
have been to college, but vacation time has 
alwavs found them with their father again 
wherever he might be; which means, of course, 
that they were with their mother, too, and 
that Charlie, the irrepressil^le, was there also. 

When one has come to see something of the 
Taft \'iewpoint, to have a glimpse of life as he 
sees it, one realizes that' he must be a family 
man. It is his nature, it is inherent— as much 
a part of him as his smile and his capacity for 
friendship and for hard work. The members 
of his family are not only blood relations, they 
are his friends, his chums. 



/ / 



He has been making friends, loyal, constant 
friends for half a century now, but one does 
not hear of his losing any, and his friends for 
the most part come to know his family, too, 
for some of the other Tafts are always near. 

Any one that is a friend of a friend of Mr. 
Taft is Mr. Taft's friend, and therefore, the 
family's friend — but a friend does not signify 
with him a man with a pull, or a man in the 
axe-grinding business. There are no strings 
on the word friend as Mr. Taft uses it. All his 
family know this too, even if it never con- 
sciously occurs to them. They act up to it 
instinctively and without premeditation. It 
is the Taft way. 

Obviously the Taft family could not be the 
unit it is, were it scattered and not well in 
hand. That is why Mr. Taft takes his family 
with him, even though doing so requires no 
httle planning and contriving, much simplicity 




Charlie Mrs. Taft 

Miss Marjorle Colton Commissioner Forbes The Secretary General Edwards 
Bagino, the Summer Capital 



and al;)soliitely no display. Were Mr. Taft 
a man of wealth it would be easy enough to 
manage, but he has always been a salaried 
man and has no private fortune. Sacrifice 
is necessary and a simplicity that astonishes 
persons abroad. 

No European functionary of Mr. Taft's ex- 
alted rank would think of traveling as quietly 
as did the Secretary of War on his journey 
round the world. If this journey seemed more 
like a royal progress at times, it was none of 
the Secretary's doings. The distinction was 
thrust upon him by those who gathered to do 
him honor. His personal arrangements for 
his family and himself were almost meagre. 

Incidentally it may l)e remarked that it 
was also .one of the most difficult trips for 
which any American woman has had to plan. 
An extended railway journey in this country, 
in late fall, with important social functions 
along the way and many outdoor excursions 
on the side, a long sea voyage to a tropical 
country, with an important stop in Japan, 
where receptions would be many, a consider- 
able stay in Manila where much surely would 
l)e expected of Ihe wife of the Secretary of 
War. 'i1ien north, almost to the Arctic, and 
across Sil)eria, a meeting with the Czar and 
the Czarina, a flying visit to the gay capitals 
of Jun-ope on the way home, and again the 

79 




Major Noble 



Mrs. Taft : Helen Tatt Governess Fred Carpenter 

Cliarlie Secretary Taft 



steamer in company with many stylish and 
critical Americans. 

Here was a journey to call for all the plan- 
ning, the resourcefulness, and ingenuity of an 
American woman. How many women who 
read this story would l)e willing to attempt 
such a journey without a maid or servant, 
and with an irrepressible small l3oy who must 
be kept at least respectable? 

Yet Mrs. Taft's fine taste iii dress and 
ready sense of the fitness of things carried 
her through the long trying trip with flying 
colors. There could not be a better traveler. 

80 



''Charlie/' Mrs. Taft was once overheard to 
say at table, ''you haven't observed that there 
is a conspicuous tract of ground in the immedi- 
ate neighborhood of your ears, have you?" 
Charlie would gaze into space, his countenance 
depicting that profound melancholy that 
comes to the juvenile consciousness upon the 
realization of the utter futility of all mundane 
effort. 

Observing this, the Secretary would say, 
" Oh, we won't be too hard on him. I guess 
he likes fixing up about as much as I do. I'm 
most despondent too with all this clothes- 
changing every time a function comes along." 

Charlie is the one of the children most at 
home. He will soon go away to preparatory 
school. 

One may be fairly certain that life will not 
be dull where Charlie is. This statement has 
the endorsement of no less a person than the 
Secretaiy of War of the United States. Were 
there occasion, he would testify to the truth 
of the assertion under oath. Indeed, the men- 
tal and physical vigor of both his parents may 
be traced in some degree to Charlie. Not only 
does he keep them guessing, but he affords 
them opportunity for exercise. Here is an in- 
stance. 

The Taft family had just stood for a photo- 
graph in front of the locomotive that had been 

81 



pushing the train to the summit of the road, 
passing through the Cascade Mountains. Af- 
ter the picture- taking, Charhe disappeared. 
So did the train. It went on down from 
the summit along the route the party 
was to take and did not stop for nearly a 
mile. The pusher the meanwhile returned 
in the opposite direction. We watched it 
zigzagging below us, but did not think of the 
train imtil we saw it at a turning half a mile 




Posing before the pusher— Charlie has just planned a prank 

away with Charlie on l)oard waving his hand 
merrily. How the train came to start and 
eventually to stop we never found out. 
Charlie might possibly have explained, but he 
did not. We learned, however, that the train 
did not have enough power along to come back 
for us, and as not so much as a hand car was 

82 



availaljle, we had to walk. We were thank- 
ful it was down grade. 

"Where is Charlie?" was a question heard 
frequently on the journey round the world and 
it never failed to stimulate mental activity in 
as many as several indi\nduals simultaneously. 
And even when the question was not asked 
audibly^ it was in the minds of all whenever 
the train started up, for Charlie was anywhere 
but in evidence then. He could not bear to 




Not even a hand car available 



be in sight at so critical a moment. He would 
be much more comfortal)le under a seat of the 
rear coach or between the tender and the bag- 
gage car, or on the roof if he could get there, 
and He flat enough not to be seen. Occasion- 
ally he varied this b\- hiding round the corner 
of the station until the train had started, then 
running alongside it, gral)bing some urchin's 
cap on the way and scrambling aboard the 

83 




Moscow 



train end at the ultimate moment, waving his 
trophy and crying, " Hey, Kiddo ! Wan' your 
cady?" 

In Moscow he was particularly happy for he 
managed to interest officers of distinction in 
the service of His Imperial Majesty, the Czar. 
Being as elusive as the quarterback of a Yale 
foot-ball team, another Harry Beecher as it 
were, he got out of the throng of "Eminences" 
that greeted the War Secretary at the railway 
station and began "rubbering round," as he 
explained later, altogether unintelligibly to 
several officers whose suspicions he aroused 
and who promptly "pinched" him and insti- 
tuted a search for boml^s. They were march- 
ing off to headquarters with their prey when 
the Secretary espied Charlie, then some fifty 
yards away, and made a portly sprint that 

84 




\1adivostok 



filled the respleiulont breasts of the official 
wef comers witli wondrous admiration. There 
indeed was a mi<ility man, ]\Iai-s and Mercury 
in one. No wonder such a man spolve fear- 
lessly to Japan. So would they if they could 
get away as fast. 

diarlie w^as rescued and reprimanded in 
language that sounded to the Russians like one 
of their most rugged northern dialects. The 
Secretary smiled and all was well. 

The youngster's greatest achievement, how- 
ever, was to provide trout for jjreakfast one 
of those grand Tokio mornings when every 
one's appetite is eager. Moreover, they were 
imperial trout from the preserves of Tenshi 
Sama, the Heaven Descended, His Imperial 
Majesty, Mustu Hito, Ruler of Dai Nippon. 
Neither Mr. nor ]\Irs. Taft knew this, however, 
until they had partaken and had expressed 

85 



themselves enthusiastically as to the freshness 
and delicacy of the fish. The Tafts were 
guests of the Mikado in the Shiba Palace in 
the capital of Japan and Charlie had "just 
been tiying to see if Japanese fish would bite." 
Charlie did not devote himself entirely to 
pranks though. He was always interested to 
know "where he was at/' and what was going 
on. He liked to study places and routes, to 
know al;)out the different peoples he would 




meet, why they were this way and why they 
were not some other way. In a geography 
examination he would make any other boy in 
these United States look ahead some distance 
to find him. He is a clever little student, 
with a boy's capacity for questions. Seldom 
is Mr. Taft too busy to listen and to answer. 

86 




Three Cluinis 



It is a parent's duty and pleasure, part of the 
family life which was with him even in 
Siberia. 

There on tlu^ ti'ain, crossing the snow-cov- 
ered plains, so many thousands of miles from 
America, w'as a sample of the American home. 
The Secretary and Mrs. Taft were sitting by 
the electric globe and Charlie w'as nearby. 
Mrs. Taft was reading, the Secretar}^^ busy with 
his report on his visit to the Filippines, wdiile 

87 



the youngster was engaged with a thne table, 
a map and a lot of views, studying the route 
and from time to time asking his older chums 
to show him where they would be in the 
morning and what there would be a chance 
to see. 




88 



CHAPTER VII. 




S Secretary of War, Mr. Taft has been 
for peace first, last and all the time. 
His tour of the world was a peace 
mission, and though he spoke with astonish- 
ing frankness, particularly in his speech at 
the Tokio banquet, he made friends every- 
where and enemies nowhere. He did not use 
the big stick, either. His only argument was 
plain common sense, an appeal to the rea- 
sonal)leness of the people to whom he spoke. 
In Japan, for instance, he was able to show 
clearly to liis hearers that America was ready 
and unafraid, that she would meet any foe 
on occasion without a tremor; yet, neverthe- 
less, the United States Government was not 
looking for trouble. Looking for trouble was 
a poor way of putting in time. What the 
United States Government was keen for was 




H"cti)Uuii tu Ambassador O'Brien at 6hi\rj. I'aUue 



peace, and he l)elieved that other govern- 
ments felt the same way. 

The Secretary's speechmaking ])egan at 
Cohmibiis, Ohio, and continued on to the 
Pacific Coast, over to Japan, China, and the 
Fihppines. Various though his audiences 
were, and whether he spoke officially or as 
a private citizen, the key-note of all his 
speeches was a lofty Americanism. He showed 
that this Americanism Avas a promise of 
peace; peace with honor and with justice 
to all mankind. Taken as a whole, Mr. 
Taft's utterances display a breadth above 
and beyond mere party doctrine or admin- 
istration policy; they are world-wide in their 
application. 

Here is the famous Tokio speech which 
Mr. Taft made at the Imperial Hotel to the 
Chamber of Commerce late in September, 
when the San Francisco troubles with the 
Japanese were being discussed with excite- 
ment and even apprehension throughout the 
civilized world, and the whole w^orld listened 
to every word. 

The excitement in the banquet hall as the 
Secretary read his speech was nothing less 
than terrible, not in its demonstration but 
in its restraint. Enunciating with particu- 
lar distinction, his finger on each line, he fre- 
quently paused at the end of a sentence and 

90 



waited for the interpreter to translate. When 
he came to the words — " I can talk of war. 
I am not one of those who hold that war is 
so fri(j;htful that nothing justifies a resort to 
it," hearts beat fast, and even the mask of 
impassiveness ever worn by the Japanese did 
not avail. 

This is what Mr. Taft said: 

"Baron Shibusawa, Mr. Mayor and Gentlemen 
of the Municipality and Chamher of Com- 
merce and Other Distinguished Citizens of 
Tokio:^ 

" I beg to extend to you my heartfelt thanks 
and acknowledgments for this magnificent 
evidence of your h()y})itality and good will. 
It is a little more than two years ago since 
a large party, of whom I was one, w^as the 
recipient of a similar courtesy and attention 
in this \'ery hotel at the hands of the then 
Prime ^Minister (V)unt Katsura. So many 
were we then that I ventured to compare our 
coming to the descent of a cloud of locusts 
upon this devoted land. But you stood the 
onslauglit nobly, and. your treatment of us 
is a l)right memory never to be effaced. 

"At that time you were engaged in a 
titanic struggle with another great nation, 
but the first traces of the dawn of peace were 
appearing in the East. We Americans shall 

91 




Secretary Tatt 



Ambassador O'Brien 



always feel proud of the part that Theodore 
Roosevelt, with the prestige of the headship 
of our people, was able to play in hastening 
the end of the war. Peace has come under 
circumstances honorable to both parties, and 
Japan having proved her greatness in war 

92 



as in peace, has taken her stand in the first 
rank of the family of nations. Yon have 
conckuled new treaties with your former an- 
tagonist of amity nnd commerce; and the 
wounds of war are healed. 

" The growth of Japan from a hermit coun- 
tiy to her present position in the last fifty 
years is the marvel of the world. In every 
step of that development, even at the very 
beginning, we Americans are proud to re- 
cord the fact that Japan has always had the 
cordial sympathy and at times the effective 
aid of the United States. The names of Com- 
modore Perr}^, of Townsend, Harris, of John 
A. Bingham, of General Grant and of Theo- 
dore Roosevelt will he inseparal:)ly connected 
with the history of the advance of Japan to 
the front rank among the world powers. 

"But now for a moment, and a moment 
only, a little cloud has come over the sunshine 
of a fast friendship of fifty years. A slight 
shock has l)een felt in the structure of amity 
and <»;oo(l will that has withstood the test of 
half a century. How has it come about? 
Well, in the first place it took a tremendous 
manifestation of nature to Ining it about. 
Only the greatest earthquake of the century 
could have caused even the slightest tremor 
between such friends. I do not intend to 
consider the details of the events in San Fran- 

93 



cisco. I cannot trespass on the jurisdiction 
of the Department of State, of my colleague 
Mr. Root, or my friend Mr. O'Brien, to dis- 
cuss them. But this I can say, that there 
is nothing in these events of injustice that 
cannot be honorably and fully arranged by 
ordinary diplomatic methods between the 
two governments conducted as they l^oth 
are by statesmen of honor, sanity and jus- 
tice, and representing as they do two peo- 
ples bound together by half a century of 
warm friendship. 

"It is said that there is one word that is 
never allowed to creep into the diplomatic 
correspondence between nations, however hos- 
tile, and that word is 'war.' But I am not 
a diplomat, and am not bound by diplomatic 
usage. I can talk of war. I am not one of 
those who hold that war is so frightful that 
nothing justifies a resort to it. We have not 
yet reached the millennium, and there are in- 
ternational grievances that can be accom- 
plished in no other way. But, as one of our 
great generals has said, ^War is hell,' and 
nothing but a great and unavoidable cause 
can justify it. 

" War between Japan and the United States 
would be a crime against modern civilization. 
It would be as wicked as it would be insane. 
Neither the people of Japan nor the people 

94 



of the United States desire war. The gov- 
ernments of the two countries would strain 
every point to a\'oid such an awful catas- 
trophe. 

"What has Japan to gain l^y it? What 
has the United States to gain by it? Japan 
has reached a point in her history when she 
is looking forward with confident hope to 
great commercial conquests. She is shaking 
off the effects of war, and is straining every 




Mrs. Taft General Ikhvards Mrs. Snow 



nerve for \'ictories of peace. With the mar- 
velous inchistry, inteHigence and courage of 
her people, there is nothing in trade, com- 
merce and popular contentment and enlight- 
enment to which she may not attain. Why 
should she wish a war that would stop all 
this? Sh(^ has undertaken with a legitimate 
intent in so close a neighbor, to reform and 

95 



rejuvenate an ancient kingdom that has been 
governed or misgoverned by fifteenth cen- 
tury methods. His Majesty, the Emperor, 
has shown his appreciation of the difficulty 
of the task by sending to Korea Japan's great- 
est statesman, who has exhibited his patriot- 
ism by accepting the heavy burden, when, 
by his years and his arduous kibors for his 
country in the past, he has earned a right 
to rest. No matter what reports may come, 
no matter what criticism may be uttered, 
the workl will have confidence that Prince 
Ito and the Japanese Government are pur- 
suing a policy in Korea that will make for 
justice and civilization and the welfare of a 
backward people. We are living in an age 
when the intervention of a stronger nation 
in the affairs of a people imable to maintain 
a government of law and order to assist the 
latter to better government becomes a na- 
tional duty and works for the progress of the 
world. Why should Japan wish a war that 
must stop or seriously delay the execution 
of her plans of reform in Korea? Why should 
the United States wish war? War would 
change her in a year or more into a military 
nation and her great resources would be 
wasted in a vast equipment that would serve 
no good purpose but to tempt her into war- 
like policies. In the last decade she has 

96 



shown a material progress greater than the 
world has ever before seen. Today she is 
struggling with the abuses which accompany 
such material development, and is engaged 
in an effort by process of law to retain the 
good for her people and to suppress the evil. 
Why should she risk war in which all the 
evils of society flourish and all the vultures 
fatten? She is engaged in establishing a gov- 
ernment of law and order and prosperity in 
the Filippine Islands and in fitting the peo- 
ple of those Islands by general education and 
by actual practice in partial self-government 
to govern themselves. It is a task full of 
difficulty, and one which many Americans 
would be glad to be rid of. It has been sug- 
gested that we might relieve ourselves of this 
burden by a sale of the Islands to Japan or 
some other country. The suggestion is ab- 
surd. Japan does not wish the Filippines. 
She has prol^lems of a similar nature nearer 
home. But, more than this, the United 
States could not sell the Islands to another 
power without the grossest violation of its 
obligation to the Fihppine people. It must 
maintain a government of law and order and 
the protection of life, liberty, and property 
itself or fit the people of the Islands to do 
so and turn the government over to them. 
No other course in honor is open to it. 

97 



" Under all these circumstances, then, could 
anything be more wicked and more infamous 
than the suggestion of war between nations 
who have enjoyed such a time-honored friend- 
ship and who have nothing to fight for. ' If 
this be true,' some one asks, ^why such re- 
ports and rumors of war?' The capacity of 
certain members of the modern press by 
headlines and sensational dispatches to give 




Ko-ishi-Kawa— Little Stone River Arsenal Garden 

rise to unfounded reports has grown with the 
improvement in communication between dis- 
tant parts of the world. The desire to sell 
their papers, the desire for political reasons 
to embarrass an existing government and 
their even less justifiable motives have led 
to misstatements, misconstructions, un- 

98 



founded guesses, all worked into terrifying 
headlines that have no foundation whatever. 
In each country, doubtless, there are irre- 
sponsible persons that war would aid or 
make prominent, who try to give seriousness 
to such a discussion, but when one considers 
the real feelings of the two peoples as a 
whole, w^hen one considers the situation from 
the standpoint of sanity and real patriotism 
in each countiy, it is difficult to characterize 
in polite or moderate language the conduct 
of those who are attempting to promote mis- 
understanding and ill-feeling between the two 
countries. 

" It gives me pleasure to assure the people 
of Japan that the good-will of the American 
people toward Japan is as warm and cordial 
as ever it was, and the suggestion of a breach 
of the amicable relations between them finds 
no confirmation in the public opinion of the 
United States. It is exceedingl}^ gratifying 
for me to have as my companion in my visit 
to these shores, Mr. O'Brien, the Ambassa- 
dor to Japan from the United States. We 
have been friends for years. I am sure you 
will find in Mr. O'Brien all that could be de- 
sired in one whose chief official duty it will 
be to preserve the friendship between our 
two countries. 

"I have always referred to the enthusias- 

99 



tic welcome which was accorded our party 
of American Congressmen two years ago by 
the people of Japan. So great was the kind- 




Mrs. Tatt In the Sheba Palace Grounds 



ness of His Majesty the Emperor and the 
officers of the Government that we were over- 
come with our welcome. Coming now to this 
coimtiy for the fourth time, I am an old 
story, and am not entitled to any other wel- 
come than that to be accorded an old friend 
who comes often. The distinction of being 
the Emperor's guest another time, I do not 
deserve, and should feel it my duty to de- 
cline, enjoyal)le as the honor is, but for the 
fact that I know that His Imperial Majesty 
graciously adopts this course not as a per- 
sonal matter but to signify to the American 
people and government the continuance of 
his friendship for the United States. It gives 
me the greatest pleasure and is a great honor 
for me to be able to bring a reciprocal mes- 
sage of good will from our President and our 
people." 



101 



CHAPTER VIII. 




'LTHOUGH the whole world knew of 
John Hay's "open door" m China, 
there had been no little speculation 
as to what that meant. There were some 
who thought it was merely a diplomatic 
phrase of the American Secretary of State, 
which might be ignored by the traders of 
other nations if they could only make special 
arrangements with the Celestial Empire. "It 
is only the Yankee bluff/' said these sanguine 
folk, and possibly some Chinese statesmen 
thought this too. But Secretaiy Taft dis- 
illusioned these individuals. Not one of them 
is now laying plans on the theory that 
America will tolerate any other policy than 
fair play for all on China's part. There are 
to be no special privileges. America proposes 
to stand steadfast by China's side against all 
threats or even hints that suggest privilege. 
By virtue of her Filippine possessions, the 
United States and China are now neighbors, 
and Secretary Taft declares — not officially, it 
is true, but none the less emphatically — that 
they are and will continue earnest and sin- 
cere friends. The open door for all. 

Mr. Taft's speech in Shanghai was an illu- 
mination. Shanghai is the one city of China 

102 




Disembarking at Shanghai 



considered a true nerve center. Here public 
opinion is made. He availed himself of 
his opportunity to tell his audience what 
America stood for out in China, and to illus- 
trate how Americanism meant good-fellow- 
ship, fair play, and in short a square deal 
all round. Here is his deUverance: 

" Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen : — For the 
courtesy and hospitality evidenced by this 
beautiful banquet, I wish to express to you 

103 



my grateful acknowledgment. It is a great 
opportunity and pleasure to meet the promi- 
nent citizens and residents of this great city. 
Shanghai is the business centre and in some 
respects the political centre of the Empire 
of China. 

"On my way to the Filippines, as a rep- 
resentative of the President of the United 
States, to signify the importance which he 
attaches to another step in the extension of 
popular self-government in those Islands, I 
am here only, by the way, as a traveler, 




On the Pier, Shanghai 




Shanghai 



accredited with no official authority or duty 
or message in respect of China. What I am 
about to say in respect to China, therefore, 
is said as an American citizen and not as a 
representati\'e of the American government. 



THE FILTPPINES. 

"One word in respect to the Fihppines 
before I come to America's rehition to China. 
Americans interested in Oriental and Chinese 
trade naturally look to the Filippine policy 
of the government as having a bearing upon 

105 



the attitude of America toward the Orient 
in general. Reports have been circulated with 
an appearance of authority throughout this 
part of the world that the United States 
intends to sell the Filippines to Japan or 
some other country. 

"Upon that point I do not hesitate to 
express a decided opinion. The Filippines 
came to the United States by chance, but 
the Government assumed a duty with respect 
to them and entered into an implied obli- 
gation affecting them with the people of the 
Filippines, of which it would be the gross- 
est violation to sell the Islands to any other 
Power. 

"The only alternatives which the United 
States can in honor pursue with respect to 
the Filippines are either permanently to 
retain them, maintaining therein a stable 
government in which the rights of the hum- 
blest citizen shall be preserved, or, after 
having fitted the people for self-government, 
to turn the Islands over to them for the con- 
tinuance by them of a government of the 
same character. 

"It is enough to say here that there is 
not the slightest danger of a sudden cessa- 
tion of the present relation of the United 
States to the Filippines, such as would 
be involved in a sale of those Islands, and 

106 



that, for our present purpose, the attitude 
of the United States toward China must be 
regarded, not alone as a country interested 
in the trade of China, but also as a power 
owning territory in China's immediate neigh- 
borhood. 

THE POLICY OF THE OPEN DOOR 

'The policy of the Government of the Unit- 
ed States has been authoritatively stated to 
be that of seeking the permanent safety and 
peace of China, the preservation of Chinese 
territorial and administrative entity, the pro- 
tection of all rights guaranteed by her to 
friendly Powers by treaty and international 
law, and, as a safeguard for the world, the 
principle of equal and impartial trade with 
all parts of the Chinese Empire. 

"This was the polic}^ that John Hay made 
famous as that of 'open door.' By written 
memorandum, all the Powers interested in 
the trade of China have subscribed to its 
wisdom and declared their adherence to it. 
The Government of the United States has 
not deviated in the slightest way from its 
attitude in this regard since the policy was 
announced in 1900. 

'T am advised by Mr. Millard, who has 
written much and well on the Far East and 
has given close attention to the statistics of 

107 



the trade between China and the various 
countries of the world, that the trade, both 
export and import, between China and the 
United States is second only to that of Great 
Britain. He says there is much difficulty in 
fixing the exact amount of trade because of 
the long-established custom of treating every 
piece of merchandise that comes from Hong- 
kong as an importation from British terri- 
tory. 

"It is certain, therefore, that the Ameri- 
can-Chinese trade is of sufficiently great 
importance to require the Government of the 
United States to take every legitimate means 
to protect against diminution or injury by 
the political preference of any of its com- 
petitors. 

"It cannot, of course, complain of loss of 
trade effected by the use of greater enter- 
prise, greater ingenuity, greater attention to 
the demands of the Chinese market and 
greater business acumen by its competitors; 
but it would have the right to protest against 
exclusion from Chinese trade by a departure 
from the policy of Hhe open door.' 

"The acquiescence in this policy by all in- 
terested nations was so unhesitating and em- 
phatic that it is hardly worth while to specu- 
late as to the probable attitude of the United 
States were its merchants' interests injured 

108 






The American Dinner at Shanghai 



by a violation of it. How far the United 
States would go in the protection of its Chi- 
nese trade, no one, of course, could say. This 
much is clear, however, that the merchants 
of the United States are being roused to the 
importance of their Chinese export trade, that 
they would view political obstacles to its 
expansion with deei) concern, and that this 
feelin"- of theirs would be likelv to find 
(expression in the attitude of the American 
Government. 

"Domestic business in the United States 
has expanded so enormously and has resulted 
in such great profits as to prevent American 
business men from giving to the foreign trade 
that attention which it deserves and which 

109 



they certainly would give but for more prof- 
itable business at home. As the population 
of the United States increases, as its terri- 
tory fills and its vast manufacturing and agri- 
cultural interests become greater, its interest 
in foreign trade is certain to increase. The 
manufacturers now take little care to pack 
their goods as desired by Chinese purchasers 
or to give them the size desired, but this 
stiff-necked lack of business-sense is disap- 
pearing. 

"We shall soon find the same zeal and the 
same intense interest on their part to induce 
purchasers in foreign markets that now char- 
acterize the manufacturers of other nations 
whose home business is not so absorbing as 
that of the manufacturers of the United States. 

"While we have been slow in rousing our- 
selves to the importance of a trade which 
has grown without government encourage- 
ment and almost without business effort to 
its present important proportions, I feel sure 
that in future there will be no reason to com- 
plain of seeming government indifference 
to it. 

"The United States, and others who favor 
the open door policy sincerely, will, if they 
are wise, not only welcome, but encourage 
this great Chinese Empire to take long 
steps in administrative and governmental re- 

110 



forms, and in the development of her natural 
resources and the improvement of the wel- 
fare of her people. In this way she will add 
great strength to her position as a self-respect- 
ing government, may resist all possible for- 
eign aggression seeking undue, exclusive or 
proprietory privileges in her territory, and 
without foreign aid can enforce an open-door 
policy of equal opportunity to all. 

"I am not one of those who view with 
alarm the effect of the growth of China, with 
her teeming millions, into a great industrial 
empire. I l)elieve that this, instead of in- 
juring foi'cign trade with China, would greatly 
increase it, and, while it might change its 
character in some respects, it would not di- 
minish its profit. A trade which depends 
for its profit on the l)ackwardness of a peo- 
ple in developing their own resources and 
upon their ability to value at the proper rel- 
ative prices that which they have to sell and 
that which they have to buy, is not one which 
can be counted upon as stable or permanent. 

"I may stop a moment in this connection 
to say that the Monetary Commission, headed 
by Professor Jenks, which was sent at the 
expense of the United States to China to 
induce China to adopt a gold standard, sought 
to effect a reform that would have inured 
greatly to the benefit of the Chinese people. 

Ill 



The example of Japan and the FiUppines 
justifies this statement. 

" While the recent rise in the price of silver 
has reduced somewhat the difficulty of the 
two standards, the elimination from business 
of the gambling element involved in the fluc- 
tuations of exchange due to the difference 
between the gold and the silver standard, 
would be ultimately of great benefit to the 
merchants and the common people of China, 
and to the stability and fairness of Oriental 
business. I am sincerely hopeful that it will 
not be many years before such a reform is 
brought about. 

'^For the reasons I have given it does not 
seem to me that the cry of 'China for the 
Chinese ' should frighten any one. All that is 
meant by that is that China should devote 
her energies to the development of her in- 
dustrious people and to the enlargement of 
the Empire as a great national government. 

"Charges of this kind could only increase 
our trade with her. Our greatest export trade 
is with the countries most advanced in busi- 
ness methods and in the development of their 
particular resources. In the Filippines we 
have learned that the policy which is best 
for the Filipinos is best in the long run for 
the countries who would do business with 
the Islands. 



112 




Secretary Taft with Judge Wllfley of Shanghai, whose work for honest courts 
In the Far East has won him the Secretary's hearty approval 

THE FUTURE OF CHINA. 

"It is a pleasure to know that the educa- 
tion of Chinese in America has had much to 
do with the present steps toward reform begun 
by the Government in China. It is not to 
be expected that these reforms shall be radi- 
us 



cal or sudden. It would be unwise if they 
were so. 

"A nation of the conservative traditions 
of China must accept changes gradually, but 
it is a pleasure to know and to say that in 
every improvement which she aims at she 
has the deep sympathy of America — and 
that there never can be any jealousy or fear 




Chinese Tea 



on the part of the United States due to China's 
industrial or poUtical development, provided 
always that it is directed along the lines of 
peaceful prosperity and the maintenance of 
law and order and the rights of the individual, 
foreign or alien. 

''She has no territory we long for, and can 
have no prosperity which we would grudge 
her and no political power and independence 
as an empire justly exercised which we would 
resent. With her enormous resources and 
with her industrious people, the possibilities 
of her future cannot be overstated. 

"It is pleasant to note a great improve- 
ment in the last two vears in the relations 
between the United States and China. In 
the first place, through the earnest efforts of 
President Roosevelt, the administration of 
the Chinese immigration laws of the United 
States have been made much more consider- 
ate. The inquisitorial harshness to which 
classes properly admissible to the United 
States under the treaty between the two 
countries were at one time subjected has been 
entirely mitigated without in any way im- 
pairing the effectiveness of the law. 

"The boycott which was organized osten- 
sibly on the ground of such harshness of ad- 
ministration proved in the end to be a double- 
edged knife which injured Chinese even more 

115 



than Americans and other foreign countries 
quite as much. Happily that has now be- 
come a closed incident, a past episode. 

"Again the United States has exhibited 
its wish to do full justice to China by a re- 
turn or waiver of the indemnity awarded to 
it for injuries and expenses growing out of 
the Boxer trouble — part of it. It has been 





• 

. 4., 


x^HII^^^ ' 'f^ 




^^H^^^^^^^^^^H^^^^^^^^^^^^^^K j^^li^ara ^"^I^^HRHN 





Secretary Tatt Receiving a Loving Cup from the Chinese in Shanghai 

said that we have done only what we ought 
to do. This may be so, but a nice sense of 
international obligation is not so universal — 
that it may not justly increase the friendly 
feeling between the parties to the transaction. 

THE CONSULAR SERVICE. 

" With the full approval of President Roose- 
velt, Mr. Root secured the legislation needed 

116 



to improve our consular service and to place 
it on a merit basis. I do not think it too 
much to say that the consular representa- 
tives in China within the last decade have 
not been up to the standard which the im- 
portance of the business interests of the 
United States in China demanded. 

"Aware of this, the administration at 
Washington has within the last three years 
given special attention to the selection of 
consuls in China. This was made evident 
in the selection of both Mr. Rodgers and Mr. 
Denby as consul-generals at Shanghai. It is 
a new sensation for an American to come to 
a Chinese city and find as his consular 
representative one who knows the Chinese 
language and who understands the Chinese 
Empire as few (^hinese understand it. I con- 
gratulate you citizens of the United States 
on having such a representative of your in- 
terests in this great commercial community 
as Mr. Denby. 

THE UNITED STATES COURT FOR CHINA. 

" Finally another great step has been taken 
by the Government of the United States to 
improve its relations to China. Many years 
ago the Chinese Empire granted the right to 
citizens of the United States to reside in so- 
called concessions within the borders of the 

117 



Chinese Empire, and there enjoy the security 
of living under the government and admin- 
istration of law by officers of the United 
States. 

"This extra- territoriality was chiefly im- 
portant in securing an administration of jus- 
tice in accordance with the principles and 
laws obtaining in the United States. It im- 
posed an imperative obligation upon the 
United States to see to it that the justice 
thus administered by the officers whom it 
vested with judicial powers should be of the 
highest and most elevating character. 

"I regret to say that this obligation for 
many years did not receive the attention and 
care that it ought to have had, but in the last 
Congress, at the instance of Secretary Root, 
under guidance of Mr. Denby, then the chief 
clerk of the State Department and now your 
Consul-General at Shanghai, with the able 
assistance of Mr. Denby' s brother, a member 
of Congress from Michigan, and of Senator 
Spooner of Wisconsin, a law was passed 
which properly recognizes the dignity and 
importance of the power conferred by the 
Chinese treaty upon the Government of the 
United States to administer justice in re- 
spect of citizens of the United States com- 
morant in China by the creation of a United 
States circuit court for China. 

118 



"Our Government was fortunate in the 
selection as the first judge of that court of 
a gentleman who had had four or five years' 
experience in the Orient as Attorney-General 
of the Filippines, and who came to Shanghai 
with an intimate knowledge of the method 
of imiting, in one administration, the prin- 
ciples of the common law of the United States 
with the traditions and conditions of a for- 
eign country. 

"His policy in raising high the standard 
of admission to the bar and in promoting 
vigorous prosecutions of American violators 
of law and the consequent elimination from 
this community of undesirable characters who 
have brought disgrace upon the name of 
Americans in the cities of China, cannot but 
commend itself to every one interested in the 
good name of the United States among the 
Chinese people and with our brethren of other 
countries who live in China. 

"It involves no small amount of courage, 
and a great deal of common sense, to deal 
with evils of this character and to rid the 
community of theni. Interests which have 
fattened on abuses cannot be readily disturbed 
without making a fight for their lives, and 
one who undertakes the work of cleansing 
and purifying must expect to meet resistance 
in lil)el and slander and the stirring up of 

119 



official opposition based on misinformation 
and evil report. 

" I am glad to think that the Circuit Court 
for China has passed through its trial and 
that the satisfaction which its policy has 
brought to the American and foreign com- 
munities in China and to the Chinese people 
will not be unknown to the Administration 
at Washington, at whose instance this Court 
was first established. 

" I have read Judge Wilfley's opinions both 
in civil and in criminal matters. He has 
worked hard and well. He has made it plain 
that some additional legislation by Congress 
is necessary to lay down a few more general 
principles of law which are to govern in the 
extra-territorial jurisdiction of the Court in 
China. I sincerely hope and believe that the 
establishment of this Court will make much 
for the carrying out of exact justice in the 
controversies that arise in the business be- 
tween Chinese and Americans. 

''There is nothing for which the Oriental 
has a higher admiration than for exact jus- 
tice, possibly because he is familiar with the 
enormous difficulty there is in attaining such 
an ideal. If this Court shall lead the Chinese 
to believe, as it ought to do, and will do, that 
the rights of a Chinaman are exactly as secure 

120 



when considered by this tribunal as the rights 
of an American, and that there is no looking 
down upon a Chinese because he is a Chinese 
and no disregard of his business rights, be- 
cause he is an Oriental, it will make greatly 
for the better relations between the tw^o coun- 
tries. 



NEW COURT AND CONSULATE. 

''And now what else is needed? It goes 
without saying. What you need is a great 
government building here, to be built by the 
expenditure of a ver^^ large sum of money, 
so that our Court and your Consulate shall 
be housed in a dignified manner. Our Gov- 
ernment should give this substantial evidence 
of its appreciation of the importance of its 




sightseeing In, Hongkong 



business and political relations to the great 
Chinese Empire. 

^'In the Orient, more than anywhere else 
in the world, the effect upon the eye is im- 
portant, and it must be very difficult for 
Chinese to suppose that the Government of 
the United States attributes proper import- 
ance to its trade with China when it houses 
its consulate and its judges in such miserably 
poor and insufficient quarters as they now 
occupy. 

"All over the United States, Congress has 
provided most magnificent Court rooms for 
the administration of Federal justice. Will 
it, now that it has created a Court whose 
jurisdiction is co-extensive with the Chinese 
Empire, be less generous in the erection of 
a building which shall typify its estimate of 
the importance of its relation to Chinese trade 
and the Chinese people?" 



122 



CHAPTER IX. 




^OME men achieve greatness and some 
have greatness thrust upon them. In 
one or the other of these ways Shake- 
speare declares the fame of all men is ac- 
counted for, but there are exceptions. The 
progress of William Howard Taft illustrates 
this. It is not in one or the other way with 
him; it is in both ways. Obviously, he has 
achieved greatness and obviously, too, he has 
had greatness thrust upon him. President 
McKinley thrust greatness upon him when 
he sent Mr. Taft to the Filippines. 

President iMcKinley knew iVIr. Taft, and 
had talked with others who knew him. To 
Secretary Day he had said: "I must have 
a big broad man for the head of the Filip- 
pine Commission, and he must be strong, 
faithful and honest." 




Tbe Midday Batb 



"Why don't you 
appoint ^ him, then? 
You know the man. 
Your description fits 
Bill Taft to a hair." 

Surely it was a good 
appointment, though 
many in those days 
thought that the 
Filippines should be 
cast adrift — "given 
independence " the 
anti - imperialists 
called it. Minds have 
changed since then, 
for, excepting 
prophets, all men see more clearly behind 
than ahead. President Roosevelt said: 

"No great civilized power has ever man- 
aged with such wisdom and disinterested- 
ness the affairs of a people committed by 
the accident of war to its hands. If we had 
followed the advice of the misguided per- 
sons who wished us to turn the Islands loose 
and let them suffer whatever fate might be- 
fall them, they would already have passed 
through a period of complete and bloody 
chaos, and would now undoubtedlv be the 
possession of some other power which there 
is every reason to believe would not have 




124 



done as we have done; that is, would not 
have striven to teach them how to govej'n 
themselves or to have developed them, as we 
have developed them, primarily in their own 
interests. Save onlv in our attitude toward 
Cuba, I question whether there is a brighter 
page in the annals of international dealing 
between the strong and the weak than the 




Hauling llciiip 



|)age which tells of our doings in the Filip- 
pines." 

About Mr. Taft, to whom we owe this 
splendid page, the President said: 

"His is a standard of absolutely unflinch- 
ing rectitude on every point of public duty, 
and a literally dauntless courage and willing- 
ness to bear responsibility, with a knowledge 

125 



of men and a far-reaching tact and kindness, 
which enabled his great abiUties and high 
principles to be of use in a way that would 
be impossible were he not gifted with the 
capacity to work hand in hand with his fel- 
lows." 

Looking over the work that lay before Mr. 
Taft when he went to the Filippines, one 
sees such a complication of embarrassing con- 
ditions in the way, so many hindrances to 
successful accomplishment, that one is con- 
vinced that no one would take hold of such 
a task but a veiy wise man or a fool. 




Kobert Taft 



J^^-«e^ 



It will be renieml)ered that the United 
States did not begin the troiil^le in the Filip- 
pines. There had always been trouble there. 
Rol)ber bands had been busv since the time 
of the earliest records, and undoubtedly be- 
fore. These ladrones, as thev were called, 
lived by blackmail, and Spain had been un- 
able to sul)due them. But the first real in- 
surrection took place in 189() under Aguin- 
aldo. 

This was the outbreak of the sentiment 
that had been growing since 1871, the year 
of the opening of the Suez Canal. This open- 
ing shortened the route from Spain to the 
Islands tremendously, so that there was an 
unusual immigration of Spaniards, especially 
of Repul)lican Spaniards who were angry that 
Spain should have gcme back to monarch- 
ial government. These immigrants wdio had 
tasted of repulolicanism and wished for more 
spread abroad in the Islands doctrines that 
were anything but harmony with the idea 

127 



of the divine right of kings. These ideas, 
Hke seeds, took root and eventually sprouted 
and blossomed in spite of all the repressive 
measures of the Spanish Governor-Generals. 
The Filippines who wished to get rid of 
Spain were repeatedly foiled by the activ- 
ity of Spanish spies, and they suspected that 




Helen Taft 



nmch of the spying was done by the priests 
or friars. This is why the Filipinos hated 
the friars. 

Mr. Taft in his report to President Roose- 
velt speaks of the friars as belonging to the 
Dominicans, Augustinians, Franciscans and 
Recoletos. There were many native priests, 

128 




Old Wagon Koiiil 



l)Ut these were of the secular clergy and were 
against the Spanish friars. In well-nigh all 
rural communities the friars represented the 
increasingly unpopular Spanish Government 
and owned personally great areas of culti- 
vated land. 

The insurrection of 1896 was against this 
government for the particular purpose of get- 
ting rid of the friars and getting possession 
of their lands. It resulted in the treaty of 
Biac-na-Bato. Aguinaldo and his lieuten- 
ants were to leave the Islands and Spain was 
to pay them much money. 

Spain did not make good, and when Ad- 
miral Dewey sailed through the Spanish fleet 
to Manila in 1898 Aguinaldo was quite willing 
to come back home and help the Americans. 
Things were in a bad way in the Islands 
then. Agriculture was almost impossible, the 
friars' rents were two years behind, and so 

129 



trade was nearly at a standstill. Dewey's ob- 
literation of the Spanish fleet pricked Spain's 
prestige bubble, and straightway the embers 
of Aguinaldo's revolution of 1896 were burn- 
ing brightly in practically every province. 




The Secretary and his staunch friend 



In return for Aguinaldo's help in gathering 
insurrectos to aid the Americans drive Spain 
from the Iskmds, General Merritt permitted 
these comrades in arms to enter ^lanila. He 
wished the city for himself and his own peo- 




|{cf(iro the Rliidorpost 
The plasue carried oft tlirci'-rimrtlis of tlicso watpr-lniftalo 



pie only. Bitter feeling toward Americans 
developed rapidly. Ingratitude is an excel- 
lent fertilizer of bitter feeling, and the Treaty 
of Paris, by which Spain handed the Islands 
over to the United States, did not help affairs. 
Aguinaldo went to Malolos and organized a 
government. Several other insurrectos did the 
same thing on the \'isayan Islands. Neither 
government maintained ordei*. On February 
4, 1899, the Filij)inos outside of Manila at- 
tacked the Americans within, and on the 

131 



twenty-third there was an outbreak in the 
town itself. 

So began the war that led to eventual Fili- 



'^ 




-•-'SL 















«■• 




Hemp maker 



pino defeat. But though Agumaldo could not 
offer further resistance, Funston ha\dng de- 
coyed and captured him, guerrillas continued 
to make trouble. They were encouraged by 
the "Anti-imperialists" at home, who de- 
clared that there would soon be a change of 
administration, and that the new adminis- 
tration would hand the Islands over to the 
Filipinos. Without this encouragement there 
would have been none of the guerrilla war- 
fare. 

The almost continuous warfare from 1896 
till June, 1902, was certainly bad for the 



Mill 




Islands. Mr. Taft says:— "Not only did the 
existence of actual war prevent farming, but 
the spirit of laziness and restlessness brought 
about by guerrilla life affected the willingness 
of the natives to work in the fields. More 
than this, the natural hatred for the Ameri- 
cans which a war vigorously conducted by 
American soldiers was likely to create, did 
not make the coming of real peace easy." 




When the war ended the ladrones were 
still about and were still keen to live in 
idleness by blackmail. They needed con- 
siderable attention. There was the great 
mass of the population, 5, GOO, 000 out of 7,- 
000,000 of whom could neither read nor write, 
and who had sixteen spoken languages, no 
one of which was recognizal)ly like any of 
the others. It recalled the Tower of Babel. 
There was no Esperanto. Every community 
was under a boss who ruled chiefly because 

134 



Charlie Taft 
on his 
first visit 
to the 
Filippines 




of the fact that he could read and write. Mas- 
ter oi- owner nii<j;lit he a more correct word 
than hoss. He had far too much power. 
''The history of the insurrection," says Mr. 
Taft, "and of the condition of hiwlessness 
which succeeded the insurrection is fuU ot 
instances in which simple-minded country 
folk, at the bidding of the local leader, have 
committed the most horrible crimes of tor- 
ture and murder, and when arrested and 
charged with it, have merely pleaded that 
they were ordered to commit the crime by 
the great man of the community." 

This irresponsible power which the bosses 
possessed over comniunities would have been 
fatal to anything like successful government 
had th(> Islands been handed over to Fill- 



ip 5 



pinos. Filipino leaders, whether bosses or 
municipal officials, were given to oppression 
and subject to corruption. There was no 
public opinion to restrain them, and could 
not be where eighty per cent of the inhabi- 
tants were wholly without education, a prey 
to fraud, mistreatment, to religious fakirs — 
a condition, in short, that was intolerable 
altogether, and which demanded far-seeing 
vision to apply the remedy. 

In another chapter I shall show how Wil- 
liam Howard Taft appeared, applied — and 
achieved. 




Greeting the Secretary 



CHAPTER X. 




'PANISH friars have made possil:)le the 
Americanization of the Fihppines; 
have made it certain that the Fih- 
pinos can become self-governing. They blazed 
the trail and prepared the way by converting 
the I'ilipinos to Christianity three hundred 
years ago. The FiHpinos have been profess- 
ing Christians ever since; the only Christian 




•Jlie FUtpIno Members 



race in the Orient. "The friars/' says Mr. 
Taft, "beat l)ack the wave of Mohammedan- 
ism and spread their religion through all the 
Islands. They taught the people the arts of 
agriculture. They preached to them in th(>ir 
own dialect. They lived and died among 
them. They controlled them. The friars 
left the people a Christian people — that 
is, a people with Western ideals, who looked 

137 



towards Rome, Europe and America. They 
were not like the Mohammedan or the Bud- 
dhist, who despise Western civiUzation as in- 
ferior. They were in a state of tutelage, ripe 
to receive modern Western conceptions as 
they should Ije educated to understand them. 
This is the reason why I believe that the whole 
Christian Filipmo people are eapable by train- 
ing and experience of becoming a self-govern- 
ing people." 

Those Spanish friars builded better than 




Tlie .Seori'tary and ( i(n-ernor-( !eneral Smith at a Ball Game 

they knew. Possibly they would have builded 
differently had they looked clearly into the 
future, but surely the Christian world owes 
much to these early men who, without ques- 
tion or hesitation, went to the uttermost parts 
of the earth to preach their faith, to preach 
it with no hope of reward or even of comfort 
in this world — taking, as the Master had com- 
manded, " neither scrip nor raiment," and with 
only the joy of service for their recompense. 

138 



Gratitude is due the friars for the teach- 
ableness of the FiHpino as our Government 
finds him today. His intellectual and spirit- 
ual inheritance for ten generations is in ac- 
cordance with our own, wherein he has an 
advantage over Chinese and Japanese, for he 
can assimilate American ideas better, and 
American ideas, thanks to the expanse and 
freedom of American life, are keenly active 
towards the world's enlightenment. 

Mr. Taft believes thoroughly that today is 
too soon to give the Filipinos independence, 
because they lack experience. They would 
not know how to exercise i)()litical franchise, 
but the present FiHpino government is dem- 
onstrating that it is a question merely of 




As Mountain Roads are Today 



time, perhaps of only one generation, when 
the Fihpinos may l)e allowed to govern 
themselves freely. He is not sure that then 




General /Wood Tour of Personal Inspection The Secretary 



they will desire independence, Ijut time will 
tell. He is emphatic in declaring his belief 
that America must guide at present. 

Mr. Taft says that the presence of the 
Americans in the Islands is essential to the 
due development of the lower classes and the 
preservation of their rights. If the Ameri- 
can Government c!Ui only remain in the Is- 
lands long enough to educate the entire peo- 
ple, to give them a language [English] whicli 
enables them to come into contact with niod- 




liiiiiKlns; In the Kgrotoe Chiefs to Meet the Secretary 

ern civilization, and to extend to them from 
time to time additional political rights, so that 
by the exercise of them they shall learn the 
use and the responsibilities necessary to their 
proper exercise, independcMice can l)e granted 
with entire safety to the people. I have an 
al)iding conviction that the Fihpino people 
are capal)le of being taught self-government 
in the process of their development, that in 
carrying out this policy they will be improved 

141 



physically and mentally, and that as they 
acquire more rights, their power to exercise 
moral restraints upon themselves will be 
strengthened and improved. Meantime they 
will be able to see, and the American public 
will come to see, the enormous material bene- 
fit to ])oih arising from the maintenance of 
some sort of a bond Ijetween the two coun- 




-St 



*» 



-"^BSHesr— ^^-^, 



.^▼l. 



W^^fm 




'^^^^. 



Arrival at Manila. October 15, 1007 



tries which shall preserve their mutually bene- 
ficial lousiness relations. 

No one can study the East without hav- 
ing been made aware that in the develop- 
ment of China, Japan and all Asia are to be 
presented the most important political ques- 
tions for the next century, and that in the 
pursuit of trade between the Occident and 
the Orient the having such an outpost as the 



142 



Filippines, making the United States an 
Asiatic power for the time, will be of im- 
mense benefit to its merchants and its trade. 




oc. 



mi 

■ :■•■•?•^v•;.v'i<^J 




fv 














^. 




■'^f^^&^^-M'r. 



;•!' .~ . 



;; ■:;;;:>;;; 



>rf 



Ik. \,- 



■'■i>y.','> 



^ 







Mrs. Taft 



While I have always refrained from making 
this the chief reason for the retention of the 
Fihppines, because the real reason lies in 
the obligation of the United States to make 
this people fit for self-government and then 
to turn the government over to them, I do not 



Receiving a 
petition 

TovvnstoIl\ wish 

to re-cliristpn 

tlieir city 

"Taft" 




think it improper in order to secure support 
for the policy to state such additional reasons. 
The severe criticism to which the policy of the 
Government of the Filippines has been sub- 
jected by English Colonial statesmen and stu- 
dents should not hinder our pursuit of it in the 



144 



slightest. It is of course opposed to the policy 
usually pursued in the English Government 
in dealing with native races because in com- 
mon with other colonial powers, most English 
colonial statesmen have assumed that the 
safest course was to keep the native peoples 
ignorant and quiet, and that any education 
which might furnish a motive for agitation 
was an interference with the true and proper 
course of government." 

Without any of the spread-eagleism that 




(;ovcriiiiifiit Printing omee 



occasionally affronts good taste this work of 
educating another people to take care of them- 
selves is altruistic and as yet has not become 
a habit with those nations that call themselves 
Christian. It would seem, however, to be in 
accordance with (In'istian precept. 

It is doing the lMlii)inos good. They are in 
far ])otter condition than they were and this 
in spite of the fact that the rinderpest carried 

145 



away seventy-five per cent of their cattle, and 
about half their horses have died of "surra." 
They have good roads now and can get to 
market easier. They have no longer to fear 
the raids of the robber bands; rents are easier 
since the Church has sold her splendid lands 
to the government, after the negotiations of 
Mr. Taft in person at the Vatican; the postal 
savings banks offer opportunity to put money 
away securely; farmers can obtain cash at a 
rate of interest that is not outiageous usury, 
elections are held, there is civil service em- 
l3odying the merit system in good working 
order. Experiments that experts are making 
constantly in the department of agriculture 




Inspecting the New Water Works The Secretary Insisting on Seeing for Himself 




lhrnii_ii liic Aqilcluct i!ii a Ihilul I'ar 



are doin^i- much to assure good management of 
ci-ops, and sanitation is immensely improved. 
There was a great deal of disease in Manila 
due to ])a(l water from the Mariquina Iviver, 
whit'h flowed through three large towns be- 
fore it reached the capital and brought sewage 
and refuse with it to Ahuiila Bay. Mr. Taft 
set about to do away with this constant men- 
ace to health and thanks to his efforts water- 
works are just now completing which will 
l)ring pure mountain water to Manila from 
a reservoir some twenty-five miles away. The 
cost of this enterprise is al)Out $2,000,000. 
This, together with pumping stations now 

147 



building, will make the city as healthy as any 
other in the tropics; the death rate is largely 
reduced, in the case of infants especially. It 
is perhaps fifty per cent of what it was. But, 
above all, general education is making one peo- 
ple of the many tril^es with their mutually 
incomprehensible languages. Mr. Taft has es- 
tablished schools throughout the islands. The 
Spanish school system was in large part on 
paper. The American system is a reality, with 
headquarters in Manila. There are thirty- 
seven divisions each in charge of a division 
superintendent. These are divided into 379 
districts with a supervising teaclier at the 
head of each, and in place of almost no 
schools at all (for Spain had no great desire 
that the common people should read and write) 
there are at present al)out thirty-seven hun- 
dred, with some 500,000 pupils. The munici- 




Advancing Education 
Laying Cornerstone for tlie First Brlcl< Sctiool Building in tlie Filippines 



palities support their 3,500 primaiy schools 
at an annual cost of $750,000 and the Filipino 
government spends $1,750,000 more on the 
other schools each year. 

Schools open in August and the long vaca- 
tion begins in March. Sixty per cent of the 
pupils are boys, and forty per cent are girls. 
Today there are eight hundred American 
teachers in the Islands and six thousand Fili- 




A (.'las-s In Kugllsli 

pino teachers who are either graduates of 
American Normal Schools or have received 
their ccUication from Americans. There are 
several kinds of schools in the Islands now that 
had not so much as been heard of when ^Ir. 
Taft arri\'ed. For instance, there are seven- 
teen schools of Domestic Science, thirty-two 
Arts and Trades schools, five Agricultural 
schools, and thirty-six provincial high schools. 

149 




Upenlng the Assembly, October 16, 1907 



The Arts and Trades schools are a remark- 
a]:»le innovation. Formerly young Fihpinos 
scorned handicrafts. They wished to become 
lawyers, physicians, chemists, or priests. No 
trades for them, but Mr. Taft has taught them. 
He has been to them what Booker Washing- 
ton has lieen to the colored folk in the South- 
ern States. The American idea of the dignity 
of labor is now a realization in the Islands. 

150 



Mr. Taft says very little practical political 
education was given by the Spaniards to the 
Filipinos. Substantially all the important ex- 
ecutive offices in the Islands were assigned to 
the Spaniards, and the whole government was 
bureaucratic. The pro\dncial and municipal 
authorities were appointed and popular elec- 
tions were unknown. The administration of 
the municipalities was largely under the super- 
vision and direction of the Spanish priest of 
the parish. No responsibility for government, 
however local or unimportant, was thrust upon 
Filipinos in such a way as to give them political 
experience ; nor were the examples of fidelity 
to public interest sufficiently numerous in the 
officeholders to create a proper standard of 
public duty. The greatest difficulty that we 
have had to contend with, in \esting Filipinos 
with official power in municipalities, is to in- 
still into them the idea that an office is not 
solely for private emolument." 

The Filipino seems to have l)een a natural 
sportsman, l)ut Mr. Taft has kind words for 
him nevertheless. 

"The educated Filipino," he says, "has an 
attractive personality. His mind is quick, 
his sense of humor fine, his artistic sense acute 
and active; he has a poetic imagination; he is 
courteous to the highest degree; he is brave; 
lie is generous; his mind has been given by his 

151 



(Spanish) education a touch of the scholastic 
logicism; he is a musician; he is oratorical by 
nature." 

That is good material to build on and now 
that American methods of education have 
superseded Spanish methods and are actively 
at work over the Islands instructing the youth 
of both sexes/ and always in the English lan- 
guage, the future is bright indeed for the Fili- 
pinos. That they appreciate Mr. Taft's work 
for them is shown by the fact that the first 
bill passed by the National Assembly, which 
he formally opened in 1907, was one appropri- 
ating 1,000,000 pesos or $500,000 in gold for 
public schools. 




A Famous Tribute— The Filipinos Unliitched the Horses from the Secretary's 
Carriage and Drew Him One Mile to the Wharf 



CHAPTER XI. 




S is natural for a man with a clear con- 
science and a good digestion Mr. Taft 
is optimistic. He believes in Ameri- 
can ideals and he believes in the young men of 
America. He delights to talk to these young 
men concerning the things that his quarter of 
a century of active life in the public service 
has shown him to be worth while. 

'' I ;icknowledge/' he says, " the necessity of 
the material pursuits. None of them is in 
danger of being neglected ])y Americans. The 
greater part l)y far of the energy of a people 
will ;ihvavs be absorbed bv manufacturing, 
production, business, transjxirtation — the de- 
velopment of the country's resources and the 
increase of its material prosperity- . That is 
natural enough and right enough. 

"But there are interests which are not ma- 
terial, and there is work to be done which is 
not that of business. The material interests 
indeed depend u})()n others w^hich are not ma- 




terial. The very possibility of conducting 
l:)usiness depends upon conditions established 
by government — and government is itself a 
sort of Ijusiness, or a profession, or, at all 
events, a duty, which has to be undertaken by 
some one. Isn't it apparent on this aspect of 
it alone that the work of administering the 
Government is one which calls for the best 
l^rain, the best blood, the ]:)est conscience of 
the Nation? And isn't it beyond all things 
clear that in the position in which our Nation 
finds itself today ; with the glorious history of 
the past inspiring it with the serious prob- 
lems of the present pressing upon it ; and with 
a future, boundless and inconceivable in its 
possibilities, inviting it; isn't it clear that there 
is nothing in the world that calls so loudly for 
the devotion of their best talents by our best 
voung men as does the Nation and its Govern- 
ment? 

"We pride ourselves on our National pros- 
perity, and we have reason to do so. And 
that did not come of itself nor without the 
tireless labor of thousands of keen Amer- 
ican minds and strong American arms. But 
neither did it come without the work of the 
American statesmen who estal)lished and 
maintained the Nation and made its laws and 
determined its place in the family of nations, 
nor of the soldiers who fought for it, nor of all 

154 * 



the various grades of men in its service, con- 
spicuous and inconspicuous, who carried on its 
work and fulfilled its duties as a Nation, per- 
petuating it, and strengthening it newdy each 
vear, and with it all the institutions of societv 
which depend upon it— all those relations in 
which men live in comfort and security, all 
that confidence in which they sleep and rise 
again and carrv on their lal^ors and provide 
for the vmquestioned future. 

''There will never be, I say, any dangerous 
denial of the need that most men work at the 
productive and material duties. The danger 
is that material things may become all-absorb- 
ing. Prosperity may be so great that to share 
in it may come to seem the one end of living. 
The rewards of the commercial life are tangible 
and they are alluring. In times when these 
rewards are large and their attainment easily 
probable within a very short time, it would be 
strange if a peoi)le were not tempted to forget 
other and higher things and devote themselves 
entirely to the less noble. 

" I^ut I sav to vou that if the voung men of 
this country, enchanted by the glittering 
prizes of commercial life, close their eyes to 
the lofty duties of patriotism, forget that their 
country' calls no inconsiderable munber of 
them to her own definite, professional service, 
alas for the countrv! 

155 



" If the instructed, disinterested, and patri- 
otic abilities especially of its educated youth 
are not at the call of the country, alas for it, 
and alas for them! To little avail have they 
read their Plato and been told that they who 




Arthur I. \orys 



■ii'tary Taft 



do not take their share in the Government 
shall be slaves of a Government by the more 
ignoble. 

" Our National wealth is the result of efforts 
such as perhaps no people ever put forth be- 

156 



fore, coupled with natural resources, good for- 
tune, and divine favor. But we cannot rest 
in this. We cannot abandon ourselves to 
merely material superiority. We must not 
yield to the fascination of its ready rewards. 
There is danger of a people becoming at first 
intoxicated and then besotted by its own pros- 
perity. We need above everything else now 
a realizing consciousness that our countrj^'s 
material prosperity is nothing unless it en- 
ables us the l)etter to Fulfill those high duties 
to which we as a ]XM)ple ai-(^ called — to carry 
oil here the most enlightened government, un- 
der which free men are progressing toward the 
loftiest ideals, and to extend the blessings of 
that government, with the same l)eneficent 
ends, for their sake and for no advantage of 
our own, to those who have been providenti- 
ally brought under it. 

"Our wealth will enable us to do this the 
better in various ways. It has been necessary 
to the possil)ility of culture and the existence 
of art. But it is on my mind that perhaps 
in no wav is the countrv's wealth a more 
profitable asset than in the fact that it may 
now support young men who are willing to 
devote attention to public matters, to study 
the work and assunu^ the responsibilities of 
})ul)lic administrators. 

"The service of young men of wealth is 

157 




likely to be especially efficient, because their 
income makes them indifferent. The in- 
difference they would feel with regard to the 
emoluments of office would tend to make 
them faithful, independent, conscientious 
officeholders. 

" If there is any one thing upon which I feel 
strongly it is this subject of the duty of the 
wealthy and educated young man to his coun- 
try. It has many times been remarked that 
much of England's administrative success, in 
municipal and in imperial affairs, has been 
due to the existence in England of a class free 
l3y l^irth from the need to labor and indeed 
forbidden to do so, but expected to enter the 
country's service. Now, we do not want and 
could -never possibly have a 'governing class' 
here. But if it is a fact that a considerable 
number of young Americans are nowadays an- 

158 



nually leaving college of whom necessity does 
not require that they should give their time 
to bread winning, is it not also a fact that the 
loud voice of pu])lic opinion should require of 
those young men that they consider whether 
their countiy does not need them? Oh! we 
may talk of culture and books and of serving 
the countrv^ by being a good citizen. That 
is xers" well. But good citizens need to know 
where their polling place is, and need to feel 
the obligation to do jury duty, and need to be 
acquainted with the affairs of the municipality 
and the countiT, and need to offer themselves 
for definite work in the municipalities or the 
State 01' in Ihe de})endencies, if they l)elieve 
that they could do that work well. 

" I am disposed to insist very positively 
upon this point : that the young man who is 
wealthy enough to b(> i'wc from anxiety as to 
his own comfort and his family's, owes it to 
society to devote himself to public affairs. 
He is failing in his duty if he does not. 

"Seek office? \Miy should lie not seek of- 
fice? What is there wrong or objectionable 
in a good man's seeking office, when he feels 
himself competent to discharge its duties, is 
conscious of having a high idea of its responsi- 
bilities, and finds his heart warm with ambi- 
tion to be of those to whom his country's honor 
is confided? He may be sure that men less 

159 



well qualified and with lower ideals than him- 
self will be sure to seek it. 

"Assuredly there is a career in the public 
service. One may not prophesy for every 
man commendably ambitious to enter it that 
he will end an Ambassador, but there is abun- 
dant opportunity for useful work. A good 
head and good health are necessary, with the 
disposition to work and work hard. There 
are opportunities on every hand for men to 
distinguish themselves by services of eminent 
value. 

"As to rewards. I do not talk of rewards. 
For the class of men to whom I would have the 
idea of pul)lic service appeal, the matter of re- 
wards would be irrelevant. There are no for- 
tunes to be gained. In many instances there 
might be few great honors to be won. But is 
there no satisfaction in being of the numl^er 
of those who are hving their lives peculiarly 
in their country's life? Is there no inspiration 
in the sense that one is helping to do the Big 
Things— the things that count, that last, that 
go into history? Or rather is there anything 
in the world that compares with the joy that 
rises in the heart of him who knows he has a 
part in those things?" 

" I say to him that there are rewards which 
are unknown to him who seeks only what he 
regards as the substantial ones. The best of 



160 



all is the pure joy of service. To do things 
that are worth doing, to be in the thick of it, 
ah! that is to live. 

"The poor man who chooses this way will 
have to live plainly, as things go nowadays. 
At least, he won't pile up a surplus of wealth. 
Why should he want to? We used to l)e told 
in a homely adage that a millionaire had no 
advantage over a poor man in his capacity 
for food and drink. Wealth provides small 
satisfactions, but not deep ones. It can give 
no felicity like that which comforts the man 
who has identified himself with something big- 
ger than himself, which thrills the heart of the 
patriot, of the public servant. 

''There is not, however, the least cause for 
despaii', nor is there perhaps the least occasion 
for this exhortation which you have artfully 
drawn out of me. There is evidence that the 
country's young manhood does appreciate and 
is ready to respond splendidly to the call to its 
service. There has never been a time when 
the yoiuig men of the country were so inter- 
ested in pul)lic (luestions, or when the prob- 
lems and the work befon^ us so rested upon 
their minds and consciences. 

" I have means of knowing this. For illus- 
tration, I liave remarked lately an increasing 
number of inquiries about Government mat- 
ters, especially about affairs in the dependen- 

161 



cies, as to which I am supposed to know some- 
thing. I have cause to know that the interest 
in pubhc affairs is keen at Yale ; I beUeve it is 




M. E. Hennessy 



Winston ('luirchill 



[Secretary Taft 



SO at many colleges and universities. The 
fine, vigorous, eager new manhood of our 
country will give us all lessons in this matter 
of civic duty, depend upon it. 



162 



" Do not let it be for a moment understood 
that there is or has been any difficulty in filling 
the public posts for the most part with com- 
petent, high-class men. Certainly this is not 
so in the case of the administration of the 
dependencies. There may have been some 
difficulty at first, when the whole question of 
our attitude toward the islands lately released 
by S})ain was undecided. Men could not l)e 
blamed tor unwillingness to commit them- 
selves to an enterprise neither the direction 
nor the end of which could be foreseen. But 
when it aj)peared the general agreement of 
the country that we had a work to do in the 
tropical islands which had so unexpectedly 
come to us, there was no longer any troul)le in 
finding men to do thnt work. I rejoice to say 
there is plentiful evidence that in neither this 
nor in any other woi'k which may fall to us 
to undertake^ will there be a dearth of men of 
high ideals and enthusiasm to carry it forward. 

''It is in the tropics apparently that there 
is most of the world's material, intellectual, 
and moral work to be done at this moment. 
Medical science has developed to the point 
where it is now possil)le for people of the tem- 
perate zone to live in the tropics for an extend- 
ed period. The great progress of the next cen- 
tury will be indubitably in the tropic lands. 
Is there anything more vital to civilization 

163 



than that it should be demonstrated that a Na- 
tion Hke the United States can be trusted not 
to exploit, but to educate and lift up from sav- 
agely, cruelty, and idleness, races which up to 
now have slept under the equatorial sun? 

" I conceive that the same rule applies to a 
nation in a community of nations as applies 
to a man in a community of men, and that 
when the Lord blessed one member of a com- 
munity with wealth and power and influence, 
and then by some series of circumstances has 
thrown into his arms some less fortunate mem- 
ber, it is his duty morally to use that fortune 
which is given to him as a trustee to help out 
his poorer neighbors. That was the view 
which McKinley took. 

I " The newspapers of the past fortnight have 
been filled with eulogiums upon the work done 
in Egypt by Lord Cromer, who is now retiring. 
All that is being said is fully justified by the 
brilliant record of that great administrator. 

" But do the young men of America appre- 
ciate it that ideals which we have set for our- 
selves in the administration of the Philippines 
are advanced far beyond those entertained by 
Lord Cromer in Egypt or avowed by Great 
Britain anywhere? When they do appreciate 
it, can there be any doubt that in their enthusi- 
asm they will rally to devote themselves to the 
realization of those ideals? 

164 



"There can l)e no doubt. Our ideals are 
said to be too high. All the more do we re- 
quire the help of our best blood to realize 
them, and all the more surely shall we have 
it. It is a glorious sight to see young men 
awaken to the vision of the Nation in her 
beauty and her ceaseless need of their devo- 
tion — to observe some among them grow sud- 
denly indifferent to the sordid allurements of 
wealth or pleasure, as their hearts are smitten 
by the compelling charm of her call." 




CHAPTER XII. 



XN a life rich in achievement one can- 
not declare with competent knowledge 
which of the many achievements is 
the greatest, l^iit those who were at Cooper 
Union that Friday night, the tenth of January, 
— when Mr. Taft spoke on Capital and Labor, 
will doubt if any other single effort of his will 
rank higher in accomplishment. 

It was a big opportunity for the War Secre- 
tary and he was big enough to take advantage 
of it. It was an opportunity that would bring 
joy to the heart of a brave man, but it would 
have filled a timorous or uncertain man with 
apprehension. Secretary Taft's countenance 





pKaHpn 


I't'ofcssor Smith 




^K ^^Hk jbB 


introdudng his 


1^ /..Jj^^^^^^L 


^^m ^^^^ftj^l 


■•(ilti friend, the 




j^H 


Secretary of the Navy" 




mm 


^K^B^^F^ n^V^^^h ^^^^^^K^ A^VII 




^^BC^^^^H8L~i9^Hfl3^ -fj^^^^^H 


^^^Hii Z} ■ ^ /A^B^!^ ill 










^ 


""t^Bm. 



166 



wore a happy anticipatory smile from the 
moment he received the notification that he 
mi^ht declare to labor why it should ally it- 
self with capital. His was the sensation of 
the athlete who knows he is in condition, and 
needs only the contest to complete his happi- 
ness. He tingled with enthusiasm. 

Not only would he tell this East side audience 
of workingmen and socialists what he thought 
of T.abor and of Capital, but he would stand 
before them a target for their questions, face 
them as an opponent, an antagonist if they 
would have it so and battle single-handed 
against the whole .'^,{)()(). 

He knew what his audience would be and he 
knew what they thought ho would l)e. Many 
of them were as keen for this chance to "get 
together" as he was. There were socialists 
whose hairs stood up like bristles at the sight 
of any one in evening dress and who had no 
doubt whate\'er that Secretary Taft was a 
})lutocrat, because he had in several instances 
ruled that certain corporation claims were not 
inicjuitous, were even (juite within the law as 
lie understood the meaning of the statutes. 

The laV)or element would l)e ready for him, 
too. They remembered his decisions. When 
he was Judge of the Supreme Court in Cin- 
cinnati and of the ITjiited States Circuit Court 
of Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee, 

107 



and they had heard 
some of these deci- 
sions denounced vo- 
ciferously; one case 
concerned Moores & 
Co., Parker Brothers, 
and the Bricklayers 
Union. Here is an 
outline of it as given 
by Jacob Waldeck. 

Parker Brothers, 
mason contractors, 
had refused to collect 
a fine that had been 
im p o s e d by the 
Bricklayers Union 
on one of their em- 
ployes. The firm had 
also refused to dis- 
charge an apprentice 
and hire another 
satisfactory to the 
Union. 
. ,. « f A strike was de- 

^^ W> *- clared. The Union 

m^'^^|M||l^^^ {^[iQYi called upon all 

dealers in l)uilding 
material, to refuse to sell to Parker Brothers. 
If any firm ignored £the request, the Union 
would, according to its warning, refuse to 

168 




work the material of such firm in any build- 



ing. 



Moores & Co. continued to sell lime to Park- 
er Brothers. The Union thereupon refused 
to handle Moores & Go's, material. The firm 
sued the Union for damages and in the lower 
court was given a verdict for $2/250. An ap- 
peal was taken to Judge Taft in the Supreme 
Court. 

Judge Taft said that the bricklayers might 
refuse to handle material that woukl make 
their labor greater, was hurtful or was for any 
reason not satisfactorv. Thev might (}uit 
tluMi- employment if they chose. 

He decided, however, that they had used 
coercion to ])revent customers from denling 
witli Moores & Co. They had no direct deal- 
irg with that firm, their gi'ievance being 
against Parker I-irothers alone, and the coer- 
cion used against Moores & Co. was malicious 
and unlawful. It was boycotting. 

The Judge sustained the judgment rendered 
airainst the rulini'- iti tlu^ lower court. His 
decision was afterwards upheld by the Ohio 
Supreme Court. 

At another time the locomotive engineers 
on the Ann Arbor railwav struck. Engineers 
on connecting lines then notified their r-espec- 
tive managers that they would not handle 
freight to or from Ann Arbor. They cited 

169 




rule 12, of the Brother- 
hood of Locomotive 
Engineers. 

Judge Taf t ruled that 
the existence and en- 
forcement of such a 
rule makes the whole 
brotherhood guilty of 
c r i m i n a 1 conspiracy 
against the laws of 
their country. 

The decision in the 
case of W. F. Phelan 
was more talked about 
perhaps than either of 
the other two. It was 
at the time of the 
great railroad strike of 
1S94. The (Cincinnati 
Southern railway was 
in the hands of a re- 
ceiver whom Judge 
Taft had appointed. 

The American Rail- 
way Union, it will be 
remembered, had de- 
clared a strike against the Pullman Company, 
and had ordered a sympathetic strike on all 
railways using Pullman cars. F. W. Phelan, 
who was an official of the American Railway 



170 



Union, went to Cincinnati to arrange the 
sympathetic strike on the Cincinnati Southern. 
He did not succeed with the strike, but he got 
into jail for sixty days for contempt of court. 

"Phehm came to Cincinnati," said the 
Judge, "to cany out the purpose of a combi- 
nation of men, and his act in inciting the em- 
ployes of all Cincinnati roads to quit service 
was part of that combination. The combina- 
tion to compel the railroads to refuse to handle 
Pullman cars and so to break their contracts 
with the Pullman Company was unlawful; and 
therefore Phelan, as a member of the coml)i- 
nation, is guilty of contempt of court." 

With these decisions in mind labor leaders 
had declared against Judge Taft \'igorously 
and now he was coming to C()o})er Union, into 
their very midst and where they could almost 
get at hi in with their hands. It was too good 
to be true. They saw his finish. The Presi- 
dency for Taft'.' Ha, ha Not much. Just 
Twenty-Three ! Extinction ! 

Such a throng sought to see this ''finish" 
that the crowd outside exceeded that inside 
by possibly a thousand. Several hundred had 
gathered round the entrances l)efore five in 
the afternoon. So keen was the outside crowd 
to see the " renmants and remains" of the War 
Secretary when the contest should be ended in 
the manner they expected, that they waited 

171 



from before seven in the evening until after 
ten o'clock. Those who saw the "remnants" 
come out amidst much shouting were sur- 
prised and puzzled by his condition. He did 
not show a scratch and they did not know 
what had happened until they read the morn- 
ing papers. Here is one of the paragraphs 
they saw: 

''But he is a good, earliest, honest, manly, 
hetter-than-the-average man to look at. If the 
boat were sinking, and he could swim and you 
couldn't, you'd hand him your $50,000, — if 
you had it — saying ' Give this to my wife,' and 
she'd get it if he lived to get ashore." 

Those inside the great assembly room of 
Cooper Union knew what was going on, how- 
ever. They will )ong remember the two hours 
they spent there — two hours of triumph for 
William Howard Taft, and likely they will 
tell their grandchildren some day how they 
had heard a Secretary of War, who was after- 
ward President of the United States, intro- 
duced to a great throng as "Secretary of the 
Navy." 

Professor Charles Sprague Smith was re- 
sponsible for this incident. 

" I have the honor to introduce to you Mr. 
Taft, the Secretary of the Navy" — laughter, 
and "Secretary of War," "Secretary of Peace, " 
came from various parts of the house. 

172 



Then the Secretary arose laughing too, and 
bowing. 

"My friends," he began, and paused to 




laugh a little more. "I am reminded of a 
stor}" President Roosevelt told me not long 
since. It was about a politician who was to 
speak in the Middle West. The introducer 
after the usual jolly, turned toward this poli- 
tician and said: 

'"I have now the honor of introducing to 
you a man who is known to you all, an emi- 
nent man whose name is a household word. 
It gives me the greatest possil^le pleasure to 

introduce Mr. ahem! Mr. — er — ahem! 

Mr. — ' here the introducer leaned over slightly 
and in a distinctly audible 'aside' said: 
'What the devil is your name, anyhow?'" 

Just as any other speaker on the platform 
of the People's Forum, Mr. Taft had to stand 
for what he said. Stand for it literally. The 
Secretary's speech of itself by no means ended 
the evening's entertainment and enlighten- 
ment. The Secretary did not sit down when 
he had finished, as he would have in some other 
hall; he continued to stand waiting for the 
audience to finish him — if it could. Evidently 
those before him had made ready to hit hard 
and had left all diffidence at home. 

And all through the ordeal which consisted 
of written cjuestions coming in rapid fire, Mr. 
Taft's courtesy, his deference to his audience, 
never lessened. Even when some of the 
younger men in their zeal for information for- 

174 



got the request the Chairman had made when 
he declared the meeting open and asked that 
all questions be written on slips of paper, 
called out sundry interrogations orally. These 
did not worry Mr. Taft at all. 

Here are several samples of the questions 
that poured in on him. The first was from 
Bishop Walters of the American Methodist 
Episcopal Church. 

" In the name of 38,000 negro voters of this 
State I ask if you indorse President Roose- 
velt's discharge of the colored troops as a re- 
sult of the Brownsville incident, and if so, are 
you willing, as a candidate for president, to 
stake your fortunes on that action?" 

"T do not believe that that question is ger- 
mane to tfie subject. It is likely to come be- 
fore me officially. It is now before a com- 
mittee of the Senate. The matter cannot 
arise for action of the President or myself un- 
til that connnittee has reported. Therefore, 
I nuist decline to answer the question." 

Another question was: "Why should not 
a blacklisted laborer be allowed an injunction 
as well as a boycotted capitalist?" 

*'He should l)e. Were I on the bench, I'd 
give him one quickly." 

"Do you think that the laboring man of 
today receives sufficient compensation?" 

" I do not know what his lal)or is, or how 

175 



much he gets for it/' said the Secretary. "I 
am sure some laborers receive too Uttle — and 
some of them too much." 

"Why has your attitude toward working- 
men changed since you w^ere on the bench in 
Ohio?" one man wrote; to which the Secretary 
repKed: "It hasn't." 

A question that brought down the house 
was: 

" If it took that Louisville concern, Moores 
& Co., Lime Dealers — fifteen years to collect 
$2,500 from the Bricklayers Union, how long 
will it take the government to collect that 
$29,000,000 fine "—(laughter) . 

"That," rephed the Secretary, when he 
could be heard, "requires a peculiar applica- 
tional authentical rule which I am not able to 
make." 

One man asked, "What do you advise a 
workingman to do who is out of a job and 
whose family is starving because he can't get 
work?" 

Looking up gravely Mr. Taft said, "God 
knows. If he cannot get work the charities 
of the country may be appealed to, but it is 
an awful thing when a man who is willing to 
work and who scorns the charity of any man 
is put in this condition 



176 



J} 



CHAPTER XIII. 



X\ 1906 .Air. Taft went to C\iba. There 
was a political crisis, a revolution in 
fact, and President Pvoosevelt directed 
the War Secretary to extinouish it. Cuba has 
had so many and such continuous revolutions 
that another was not only unnecessary but 
would be ridiculous. Therefore, bv command 




Uaban.i 



of (lie President of the Unitcnl States, Secre- 
tary Tatt sailed lor ll;i\;ui;i. ih\ September 
29tli he issued a proclamation to tlie people 
of Cuba, and on October 13tli, sailed for home 
bearing- with him an address from a committee 
of residents e.\pressin<»; <»;ratitude that the revo- 
lution was totally extinct and ;i new and trust- 
woi-thy g-overnment establisluMl on the Island. 
In ;i fortnight. Mr. Tal't had done l)etter than 

177 



the whole government of Spain had failed to 
do in forty years. 

Here is the proclamation of the Secretary 
and the resolutions of gratitude adopted by 
the American residents of Havana on the eve 
of Mr. Taft's departure. They tell the story. 
It is Caesar's "Veni, vidi, vici," over again. 
" To the People of Cuba: 

''The failure of Congress to act on the irre- 
vocable resignation of the President of the 
Republic of Cuba, to elect a successor, leaves 
this country without a government at a time 
when great disorder prevails and requires that 
pursuant to a request of President Palma, the 
necessary steps be taken in the name and by 
the authority of the President of the United 
States to restore order, protect life and prop- 
erty in the Island of Cuba and islands and keys 
adjacent thereto and for this purpose to es- 
tablish therein a provisional government. 

"The provisional government hereby estab- 
lished by direction and in the name of the 
President of the United States will be main- 
tained long enough to restore order and peace 
and public confidence, and then to hold such 
elections as may be necessary to determine 
those persons upon whom the permanent gov- 
ernment of the Republic should be devolved. 

"In so far as is consistent with the nature 
of a provisional government established un- 

178 



der authority of the United States, this will 
be a Cuban government conforming, as far as 
may be, to the Constitution of Cul:)a. The 
Cuban flag will be hoisted as usual over the 
government buildings of the Island. All the 
executive departments and the provincial and 
municipal governments, including that of the 
City of Havana, will continue to be admin- 
istered as under the Cuban Repul)lic. The 
courts will continue to administer justice, and 
all laws not in their nature inapplicable by 
reason of the temporary and emergent charac- 
ter of the Government will be in force. 

"President Roosevelt has been most anx- 
ious to bring about peace under the constitu- 
tional government of Cuba, and has made 
every endeavor to avoid the present step. 
Longer delay, however, would be dangerous. 

" In view of the resignation of the Cabinet, 
until fiu'ther notice the heads of all depart- 
ments of the Central Government will report 
to me for instructions, including Major-General 
Alejandro Rodriguez, in command of the 
Rural Guard and other regular Government 
forces, and General Carlos Roloff, Treasurer 
of Cuba. 

"Until further notice, the Civil Governors 
and Alcaldes will also report to me for instruc- 
tions. 

" The people of Havana forgot their political 

isu 




Somelof Secretary Tafl's Work at Panama 



181 



differences," says Governor Magoon, in de 
scribing the results of Secretary Taft's visit, 
"and taking thought of the fact that the hor- 
rors of civil war had been averted, all parties 
joined in a demonstration of gratitude and 
praise for the work that was accomplished. 
The shore of the Bay was lined with thou- 
sands of cheering people, all availal)le water 
craft was pressed into service to escort the 
ships to the mouth of the harbor, the forts 
exchanged salutes with the vessels, and amid 
cheers and all possible display of good will the 
Peace Commission concluded its labors. The 
character and extent of their service is shown 
by the resolution adopted by a mass meeting 
of the American residents of Havana, as fol- 
lows: 
^'Gentlemen: 

"The American residents of Cuba, tempo- 
rarily organized for the purpose of making 
known to you their situation and necessities 
in connection with the recent disturl^ances 
desire to express to you their high apprecia- 
tion of the great services your wise and pru- 
dent measures have secured to them and to 
all the people of Cuba. 

"The results you have accomplished are 
greater than could have reasonably been hoped 
for at the time of your arrival. Nearly thirty 
thousand armed men, moved by the most in- 

182 



tense and bitter passions, were then arrayed 
against the armed forces of the government 
and a disastrous conflict was imminent, in 
which enormous loss of life and property would 
have l^een inevital:)le. It scarcely seemed 
possil)le that these angry elements of discord 
and strife could be brought into peaceful and 
orderly citizenship without bringing into ac- 
tive service the military power at your com- 
mand ])etween the contending forces. But 
in less than one month the wise and sagacious 
methods you pursued and the skill and adroit- 
ness with which you approached the difficult 
task committed to }()ur charge have l:)rought 
peace and quiet to (.'uba. Warlike conditions 
have vanished, with no immediate probability 
of their resumption. The armed forces have 
surrendered their arms and most of them are 
already in their fields and shops engaged in 
peaceful industr\'. 

'' Xot the least satisfactory of the considera- 
tions involved is the fact tliat in the settle- 
ment of the turbulent conditions that pre- 
vailed \'ou have caused but little irritation or 
resentment, and have secured from the Cuban 
})eo])l(^ increased respect and regard for the 
United States and greater confidence and 
trust in the good-will and wishes of the Ameri- 
can people lor the people of Cuba and their 
future welfare. 

183 



"We do not believe that so successful and 
speedy an achievement under conditions so 
difficult and dangerous has any parallel. And 
the thanks and gratitude of the people of 

Cuba, as well as of the 
great people you repre- 
sent, are clue to you for 
these inestimable ser- 
vices. 

" Wishing you a safe 
return to the United 
States and the enjoy- 
ment of higher honors in 
tlie futiu'e we are, 

"Sincerely yours, 

(Signed) 

S. S. Harvey, 
H. E. Havens, 
Wm. Hughes, 
H. W. Barker, 
C. Clifford Ryder, 
Alfred Liscomb, 
W. Roberts, 
Wm. B. Hine, 
J. E. Barlow, 
Chas. Hasbrook, 

Committee y 




CHAPTER XIV. 



y^TX ISSIOXARIES are much discussed per- 
L I J sons. They have ])eeii talked aljout 
^-^^ by indi\-i(Uials of many degrees of ig- 
norance and ])y others representing various 
degrees of knowledge. Excepting Her Maj- 
esty, the late Queen Mctoria of England, al- 
most every one lias expressed an opinion on 
the subject of forcMgn missions. Plere is what 
Mr. ^I'nft says. Ilis words will carry weight : 

" I have known a good many people that 
were opposed to foreign missions. I have 
knowni a good mnny I'cgulni' attendants at 
church, consistent members perhaps lik(^ our 
friend (Jovernor Smith, of (Jeorgia — that i'r>- 
ligiously, if you choose to use that tei'ni, 
refused to contribute to foreign missions. 

It has been the custoju in literature some- 
times to make fun of them. You remember in 
Dickens, when Sam \\'eller came home to see 
his father, Tony, and the widow whom Tony 
had married, the widow and the Rev. Stiggins 
framed an indictment against Tony on the 
ground that he would not contribute any 
money to pay for flannel waistcoats and 
colored pocket handkerchiefs for little infants 
in the West Indies. He said they were little 

185 



humbugs and he said, moreover, in an under- 
tone to Sam, that he would come down pretty 
handsome for some straight veskits for some 
people at home. 

Now, I confess that there was a time when 
I was enjoying a smug provincialism that I 
hope has left me now, when I rather sympa- 
thized with that view. Until I went to the 
Orient, until there were thrown on me the 
responsiljilities with reference to the extension 
of civilization in those far distant lands, 1 
did not realize the immense importance of 
foreign missions. The truth is we have got 
to wake up in this country. We are not all 
there is in the world. There are lots besides 
us, and there are lots of people besides us that 
are entitled to our effort and our money and 
our sacrifice to help them on in the world. 
Now no man can study the movement of 
modern civilization from an utterly impartial 
standpoint and not realize that Christianity 
and the spirit of (liristianity is the only l^asis 
for the hope of modern civilization and the 
growth of popular self-government. The spirit 
of Christianity is pure democracy. It is the 
equality of man before God, the equality of 
man before the law, which is, as I understand 
it, the most God-like manifestation that man 
has been able to make. Now 1 am not here 
tonight to speak of foreign missions from a 

186 



purely religious standpoint. That has been 
done and will be done. I am here to speak of 
it from the standpoint of political, govern- 
mental advancement, the advancement of 
modern civilization. And I think I have had 
some opportunity to know how dependent we 
are on the spread of Christianity in any hope 
that we may have of uplifting the peoples 
whom Providence has thrust upon us for 
our guidance. 

FOREIGN MISSIONS AND THE FILIPPINES 

Foreign missions began a long time ago. 
In the Filippines from 1565 to 1571 there 
were five Augustinian friars that came out 
by direction of Philip II, charged with the 
duty under Legaste of Christianizing those 
islands. By the greatest good luck they 
reached there just at the time when the Mo- 
hammedans were thinking of coming into the 
same plac^e, and thc}^ spread Christianity 
through those islands with no violence, but in 
the true spirit of Christian missionaries. They 
taught the natives of those islands agriculture, 
they taught them peace and the arts of peace. 
And so it came about that the only people as a 
body that are Christians in the whole Orient 
are the Filipino people of the Christian pro- 
vinces of the Filippines, — 7,000,000 souls. 

188 



Now I dwell upon this because it is the basis 
of the whole hope of success that we have in 
our problem in those islands. It is true that 
these people were not developed beyond the 
point of Christian tutelage. Those old mis- 
sionaries felt that it was not wise to expose 







. . 1 


^ 


m 






r 

V 

r 




— >1V" 


\ 



these people to the temptations of the knowl- 
edge which European Christians had, and so 
the}' were ke})t in a state of ignorance, l)ut, 
nevertheless, they were Christians, and for 
:>()() years have been under that influence, and 
now in this condition of Christian tutelage, 

189 



their ideals are Western, their ideals are Euro- 
pean, their ideals are Cliristian, and they 
understand us v/hen we attempt to unfold to 
them the theories and doctrines of self-govern- 
ment, of democracy: because they are Chris- 
tians, they are fit material to make in two or 
three generations a self-governing people. 
Now we have the opportunity to know, be- 
cause we have got 1,000, 000 non-Christians 
there; we have 400,000 or 500,000 lAIohamme- 
dans, and they don't imderstand repul)lican 
government; they don't understand popular 
government. They welcome a despotism. 
And they never will understand that kind 
of a government until they have been con- 
verted to Christianity. 

OUR BUSINESS IN THE FILIPPINES 

Now I suppose I ought not to get into a 
discussion here of our Imsiness in the Filip- 
pines, but I never can take up that subject 
without pointing a moral. It is my convic- 
tion that our nation is just as much charged 
with the ol)ligation to help the unfortunate 
people of other countries that are thrust upon 
us b}^ fate until they are fit to become 
self-governing people, as it is the business 
of the wealthy and fortunate in the com- 
munity to help the infirm and the im- 

190 



fortunate of that t'omiiiunity. I know tluit it 
is said that there is nothing in the Constitution 
of the United States that authorizes national 
altruism of that sort. Well, of course, there 
is not. But there is nothing in the Consti- 
tution of the United States that forbids it. 
WTiat there is in the Constitution of the United 
States is a breathing spirit that we are a 
nation with all the responsil:)ilities and power 
that any nation ever had, and, therefore, when 
it becomes the Christian duty of a nation to 
assist another nation, the Constitution author- 
izes it because it is part of its being. We went 
into the Cuban war, and we didn't go there 
for conquest. We went there because w^e 
thought there was an international scandal 
there that ought to be ended, and that we had 
some responsibility with respect to that 
scandal, if we could end it and did not do it — 
and with the best and most self-denying pur- 
pose with respect to Cuba — and then we find 
these countries on our hands. 

ROMAN CATHOLICS AND PROTESTANTS 

Now then, in the islands: I have been at 
the head of the Fihppines, and I know what 
I am talking about when I say that the hope 
of these islands depends upon the develop- 
ment of the power of the churches that are in 

191 



those islands. One of the most discouraging 
things today is not the helpless, but the pov- 
erty-stricken condition of the Roman Catholic 
Church, which has the largest congregation 





1 


I 


i 









in those islands; and every man, be he Protest- 
ant or Catholic, must in his soul hope for the 
prosperity of the Roman Catholic Church 
in those islands in order that it mav do 



192 



the work that it ought in uplifting those 
people. 

So, too, with reference to the Protestant 
missions in those islands. They are doing a 
grand and noble work. It may be that their 
congregations will not be so large as those of 
the Roman Catholic Church — it is not to be so 
expected — hut the spirit of Christian emulation, 
if I may use it, 0/ competition, between the 
representatives of the churches, has the grandest 
effect upon the agents of all the churches, and so 
indirectly upon the people. And it is the in- 
fluence of the churches upon a people as ig- 
norant as they are that holds up the hands of 
the civil governor, charged as he is with the 
responsibility of maintaining peace and order, 
of inducing them to educate their children, 
and to go on upward toward the plane of self- 
government. 

I am talking practical facts about the effect 
of religion on the political government, and I 
know what I am talking about. Now foreign 
missions accomplish — I did not realize it until 
I went into the Orient the variety of things 
that they accomplish. They have reached 
the conclusion that in order to make a man a 
good Christian, you have got to make him 
useful in a community and teach him some- 
thing to do and give him some sense and in- 
telligence. 

193 



So, connected with every successful foreign 
mission is a school, ordinarily an industrial 
school. Also you have to teach him that 
cleanliness is next to Godliness, and that one 
business of his is to keep himself healthy, and 
so in connection with every good foreign mis- 
sion they have hospitals and doctors. And, 
therefore, the mission makes a nucleus of 
modern civilization, with schools, teachers, 
and physicians, and the church. In that way, 
having educated the native, having taught 
him how to live, then they are able to be sure 
that they have made him a consistent Chris- 
tian. 

CHINA HEADED RIGHT 

Of course, they say there are a great many 
rice Christians in China. Doubtless there are. 
Chinese do not differ from other people, and 
the}^ are t^uite willing to admit a conversion 
they do not have in order that they may fill 
their stomachs; luit that does not affect the 
real fact, which is : that every foreign mission 
in China is a nucleus of modern civilization. 
Now China is in a great state of transition. 
China is looking forward to progress. China 
is to be guided by whom? It is to be guided 
by the young Christian students and scholars 
that either learn English or some foreign 
language at home or are sent abroad to be in- 

194 



structed, and who come back and whose words 
are hstened to bv those who exercise influence 
at the head of the government. Therefore 
it is that these frontier posts of civihzation are 
so much more important than the mere nu- 
m^erical count of converts seems to make 
them. 

I speak from the standpoint of, as I say, 
poHtical civihzation in such a country as China. 
They have, I think, 3, ()()() missionaries in 
China. The number of students was 35,000 
hist year. They go out into the neighborliood, 
and they cannot but have a good effect 
throughout that great empire, large as it is, 
to promote the ideas of Christianity and the 
ideas of civihzation. Xow two or three things 
make one impatient when he understands the 
facts. One is this criticism of the missionaries 
as constantly involving the governments in 
trouble, as constantly bringing about war. 
The truth is that western civihzation in trade 
is pressing into the Orient and the agents that 
are sent forward, I am sorry to say, are not the 
best representatives of Western civilization. 
The American and Englishman and others 
who li\o in the Orient are, many of them, ex- 
cellent, honest. Cod-fearing men; but there 
are in that set of advanced agents of Western 
civilization gentlemen who left the West for 
the good of the West, and because their history 

195 



in the West might prove embarrassing at 
home. More than that, even where they are 
honest, hard-working tradesmen and mer- 
chants attempting to push business into the 
Orient, their minds are constantly on business. 
It is not human nature that they should resist 
the temptations that not infrequently present 
themselves to get ahead of the Oriental brother 
in business transactions. They generally are 
quite out of sympathy with a spirit of brother- 
hood toward the Oriental natives. Even in 
the Filippines that spirit is shown, for while 
I was there I can remember hearing on the 
streets, sung by a gentleman that did not agree 
with my view of our duty toward the Filipinos : 

He may be a brother of Williain H. To ft 
But he aiii't no brother of mine. 

Now that is the spirit that we are too likely 
to find among the gentlemen who go into the 
East for the mere purpose of extending trade. 
Then I am bound to say that the restraints of 
public opinion, of a fear of the criticism of 
one's neighbors that one finds at home, to keep 
men in the straight and narrow path are 
loosened in the Orient, and we do not find that 
they are the models, many of them, that they 
ought to be, in probity and morality. They 
look upon the native as inferior, and they are 
too likely to treat him with insult. 

196 



Hence it is that in the progress of civiUza- 
tion we must move along as trade moves ; and 
as the foreign missions move on it is through 
the foreign missions that we must expect to 
have the true picture of Christian l^rotherhood 
presented to those natives, the true spirit of 
Christian sympathy. That is what makes, in 
the progress of civiHzation, the immense im- 
portance of Christian missions. You go into 
China today and try to find out what the con- 
ditions are in the interior — consult in Peking 
the gentlemen who are supposed to know and 
where do they go? They go at once to mis- 
sionaries, to the men who have spent their 
lives far advanced into the nation, far beyond 
the point of safety if any uprising takes place, 
and who have learned by association with the 
natives, by living with them, by bringing 
them into their houses, by helping them on to 
their feet, who have learned the secret of what 
Chinese life is. And, therefore, it is that the 
only reliable books that you can read, telling 
vou the exact condition of Chinese civiliza- 
tion, are written by these same foreign mis- 
sionaries who have been so much blamed for 
involving us in foreign wars. 

It is said that the Boxer War was due to 
the interference of missionaries, and the feeling 
of the Chinese against the Christian religion 
as manifested and exemplified by the mission- 

198 



aries. That is not true. It is true that the 
first outbreak was against the missionaries — 



^t«^ 



because the outl^reak was against foreign in- 
terference, and it was easiest to attack those 
men who were farthest in the Chinese na- 
tion, and there they made expression of that 
feehng l)y their attack against the whole 
foreign interference. But that which really 
roused the opposition of the Chinese was the 
feeling that all we Christian nations were sit- 
ting around waiting to divide up the Middle 
Kingdom, and waiting to get our piece of the 
pork. Now, that is the feeling that the 
Chinese have; and I am not prepared to say 
that there was not some ground for the sus- 
picion. 

I think when a man has done his duty, when 
he has made an issue, that he is entitled to 
have it stated in the face of accusations that 
are unjust. I have described to you some of 
th(^ conditions that prevail with respect to the 
Americans in the cities of the Orient — in 
Shanghai and in other of those cities; and I am 
sorry to say that there was nothing there that 
ou<rht to fill the mind of an American with 
pride. Our consular system has been greatly 
improved; and then was established a court, a 
consular court of China, the Circuit Court of 
the United States; and a man was put in there 
who had been attorney-general in the Filip- 

199 



pine Islands, who had had some experience in 
dealing with the waifs that come around up 
the coast and through one town and then go 
on up to another town. They left Manila, and 
then after they had left Manila they spent their 
time in damning the government of Manila. 
We call them in Manila Shanghai roosters. 

Wilfley went up there as judge of that court 
and he found a condition of an Augean stable 
that needed cleaning out, so far as the Ameri- 
cans were concerned; and I think perhaps in 
this audience I would be able to call on wit- 
nesses who could testify to the condition of 
morality that was carried on there under the 
protection of the American flag; because we 
have extra-territorial jurisdiction, under con- 
cession made by the Chinese Government to 
us. Wilfley went to work, and before he got 
through the American flag floated over a moral 
community; and in so doing he had the sym- 
pathy of the foreign missionaries that were in 
that neighborhood. But he has come home 
— and when you are a good many miles away 
facts are difficult to prove — pictures are easy 
to paint in lurid colors, of the tyranny of a 
judge away off there — and he has Ijeen sulv 
jected to a good deal of criticism of that kind. 
I want to give my personal testimony on the 
subject in favor of the defendant. 

With this change in our diplomatic relations 

200 



to China, by doing what was a clean honest 
thing to do, but which as between nations 
seems to be a httle more exceptional, perhaps, 
than between individuals — by agreeing to re- 
turn the money that we really ought not to 
haye taken as the Boxer indemnity, by the 
influence of our own foreign missions there 
and by the belief in China that we are not 
there for our own exploitation, or to appropri- 
ate jurisdiction, territorial or otherwise, I 
think we stand well in China today. 

I think we stand in such a position that 
such a movement as this, in order to raise 
money to increase the number of missionaries 
and the number of nuclei of Christianity and 
civilization in that teeming population of 
45(),()()(),()()(), has a better prospect today than 
it ever had before. Therefore such a move- 
ment as this must enlist the sympath}- and the 
aid of all who understand the great good that 
self-denying men who go so far to accomplish 
their good are doing. 

missionaries: their life and dwellings 

Now }'ou can read books — I have read 
them — in which the missions are described as 
most comfortable buildings; and it is said 
that missionaries are living more luxuriously 
than they would at home, and, therefore, 

201 



they do not call for our support or sym- 
pathy. It is true that there are a good 
many mission buildings that are handsome 
buildings; I have seen them. It is true that 
they are comfortable; but they ought to be 
comfortable. One of the things that you have 
got to do with the Oriental is to fill his eye 
with something that he can see, and if you 
erect a great missionary building, he deems 
your coming into that community of some 
importance; and the missionary societies that 
are doing that, and are building their own 
l:)uildings for the missionaries, are following 
a very much more sensible course than is the 
United States in denying to its representatives 
anything l)ut mere hovels. But it is not a 
life of ease ; it is not a life of comfort and lux- 
luy. I do not know how many have felt that 
thing that I think the physicians call nostalgia. 
I do not know whether you have experienced 
that sense of distance from home, that l:)eing 
surrounded by an alien people, that impression 
that if you could only have two hours of associ- 
ation with your old friends of home, if you 
could only get into the street car and sit down, 
or hang by a strap, in order to be with them. 
I tell you, when you come back after an ab- 
sence of five or ten years, even the strap seems 
a dear old memory. These men are doing 
grand, good work. I do not mean to say that 

202 



there are not exceptions among them; that 
sometimes they do not make mistakes, and 
sometimes thev do not meddle in somethinp- 
which it woukl be l)etter for them from a 
politic motive to keep out of; Ijut I mean as a 
whole, these missionaries in China and in other 
countries worthily represent the best Christian 
spirit of this country, and worthily are doing 
the WT^rk that you have sent them to do. 

I thank you for the opportunity of speak- 
ing on behalf of this body of Christian men 
and women who are doing a work which is 
indispensable to the spirit of Christian civiliza- 
tion." 



203 






7. 






C, t "-«' -^ ' 



•^U<- *- 



^_^ C'-c-*-*^ . 










<—<u. -»<■--' 




_, 









^^ 



A Certificate of Character 



CHAPTER XV. 



'^^^;:^PIAT William Howard Taft's career 
§ J has been a continuous demonstration 
^^^ of the worth of Americanism is obvi- 
ous to the reader of even these meagre chap- 
ters. That this career was inevitable is also 
obvious if one thinks of who he was and 
whence he came. 



^^P 


Tz^' . ^^||ji ^^^^^^^^^^^^H 


■■■ 


m^ 




^H 


^£JJM||^^^| 




^^H 


^-^^^^^^bQs 




BP 






g 



Alphonso Taft 



He was bom as thoroughly American as it 
is possible to be and he was brought up in ac- 
cordance with his birth. Even in a democracy, 
ancestors are accountable for much. William 
Howard Taft's ancestors go back through six 
New England generations in a direct line to 
Robert Taft, who settled in Mendon, Massa- 
chusetts, in 1660. On his mother's side — who 
was a Torrey — there is another unl^roken 
New England line reaching back to William 
Torrey, who settled in Massachusetts in 1640. 
These two parallel lines of inheritance are 
surely a warrant of Americanism, but we may 
add that one of the Tafts, Aaron, by name, a 
great-grandfather of William Howard, mar- 
ried Rhoda Rawson. Rhoda Rawson's great- 
great-grandfather was Edward Rawson, Sec- 
retary of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and 
a good secretary too. Blood will tell. Our 
best Secretary of War, best because of his 
achievements in Peace, comes only into his 
heritage in receiving his high appointments. 

So much for Americanism by inheritance; 
now for the equally American home. Home 
spells out the story for most of us. Ancestors 
furnish the metal and the home is the mould. 
The family has charge of the work and so the 
man's character is determined for this life. 
Later circumstances, various as they may be, 
do not change the man; they merely give 

206 




Louise Torrcy Taft 



various views of the same man. That is all 
they can ever do when home has finished with 
him. 

The Taft home was a grand mould to be 
formed in. In the first place it was in Ohio, 
which is a fine thing. Ohio ranks high as a 
president producer and maker of statesmen. 
It was suburban, with ground about it, and 




Class of '78 



plenty of ozone-laden air and good schools 
near by. The children had much freedom in 
their out-door life and within doors what 
every true American home never lacks, 
discipline. There they learned that benev- 
olence in little things which makes for man- 
ners, and to be considerate for others which is 
what makes life in this world livable. 

208 



No. 60 Auburn Avenue, on the outskirts of 
Cincinnati. The house, which is still there, 
was on a ridge, with Butcher Town to the 
east and Tailor Town to the west. Between 
the urchins of these "Towns" and those on 
the Ridge existed a feud, since the time when 
the memory of the Taft boys runneth not to 
the contrary. This feud was in no way ob- 




Hl8 early school clays 



noxious to the embryo War Secretary nor to 
his brothers. It added to the zest of hfe for 
all of them. 

Besides the feud, they had the out-door 
games that all normal boys delight in, also 
field sports and wresthng. At wrestHng Wil- 
liam Howard Taft was never defeated. He 
was a fine swimmer also, and it is remembered 
that he played marbles with great skill. 

He had a good in-door record as well, but- 
it was for books. He was keen to learn and 
if he had not been so lusty outside of the 
house, he would have been called a grind. 
Throughout his school days his father was a 
guide, companion, counselor, and friend. A 
rather stern pacemaker perhaps, for when 
after an examination at the high school the 
present Secretary of War ranked Number Five 
in a particularly bright class, the father 
demurred, replying to Mrs. Taft's rather pro- 
pitiatory comment, with, "No, my dear, 
mediocrity will not do for William." 

This remark, by the way, was taken up by 
the other children, who on occasion would 
chant the words deriving thereby considerable 
enjoyment of which William did not partake. 

Besides the mother, Louise Torrey, and the 
father, Alphonso Taft, there were six children 
in the family in those days. The youngest 
was a girl, Fanny Louise, now the wife of Dr. 

210 




Wlieii Wllllaiii Howard ■I'afl was at tlic Nlnotceiith 
District ruhllc .Sfhool, Clm-lnnattl 




Mr. Tatt's 
Grandmother 



Edwards of Los Angeles^ California. The 
oldest was Charles Phelps, who was graduated 
from Yale in 1864 and now lives in Cincinnati 
where he edits and owns the Times-Star. Next 
came Peter Rawson, valedictorian of the 
Class of '67 and a member of Skull and Bones 
Society, an honor of much significance in 
New Haven. William Howard came next, 
who graduated in 1878, salutatorian, and like 
his brother, a Bones man. Then came Henry 
Waters, now of New York City, who was of 
the Class of '80, at Yale, and also Skull and 
Bones, and last came Horace Button, now 

212 



head of the great Taft School at Watertown, 
Connecticut; he was Yale '83 and, as had 
then come to be a Taft hal)it, likewise a Skull 
and Bones man. 

That all the Taft boys should have gone to 
Yale is another demonstration of the Taft 
Americanism, proof that their home life was 
American. It was a simple, wholesome life; 
active, democratic, and alwavs interesting:. 
A home with pleasant grounds in summer and 
open fireplaces in winter, about which the 
family gather and where homelife is healthier, 
hap})ier, and more helpful thiin under any 
other conditions. 

In-doors Willinin Howard Taft was all for 
books. Even though he had just led his side 
to victor}^ in an association foot-]:)all match, or 



Colonel Colton anfl his sister, 
Marjorle, who 
accompanied 
Secretary Taft on his 
tour around the world 





Taft as a pupil in the Woodbury High School in Cincinnati 



had charged successfully through both Butcher 
Town and Tailor Town, he did not discourse 
upon his triumphs when he came in-doors, nor 
even go off by himself to gloat. He took down 
his books and went to work. 

His first school was the nearby Grammar 
school, the Nineteenth District public school. 
He never had a governess, a private tutor, or 
a coach, but in good American fashion ground 





i 


Ife. 


^ 




^8 


^•? ^ . 


f r '^ 


^k>^ 






^ 





Mr. Tuft and neighbors 



out all the work for himself. He went through 
the Nineteenth with flying colors and then 
on to the Woodbury high school where only 
once did he approach so near to mediocrity as 
Number Five. That was not really shameful, 
when we learn that the class William had 

215 



entered was the brightest class the school had 
ever known. 

In 1874, at seventeen, he was admitted to 
the freshman class of Yale, and graduated in 
1878. All through his college course no one 
else was so strong as he, nor so ajffable, it is 
good to say. He showed prowess in various 
individual contests, especially in wrestling. 
He did not join any of the 'Varsity teams. 




Mr. Taft and relatives 



though once he was anchor in a tug of war. 
His father had sent him to Yale to study and 
the young man sought to win honors in 
scholarship as Judge Taft has done in the same 
college before him. He succeeded for he was 
graduated with distinction, the faculty of the 

216 




Homco D. Taft 



University having appointed him sahitatorian ; 

that is, he ranked Numl^er Two in scholarship. 

His classmates nomi- 
nated him class orator. 
Besides this he had sev- 
eral special honors in 
subjects he had taken 
special personal interest 
in. With his diploma 
of Bachelor of Arts and 
his certificates of honor 
the young graduate 
went l)ack to Cincinnati 
and entered the law 
scliool there, whence 

ho was in due course graduated again as a 

Bachelor of J.aw, incidentally dividing the 

first })rize with a fellow 

classman. He kept in 

touch with his Alma 

Mater also, and h;i\ing 

done the reading she 

prescribed, received from 

her some time later a 

second parchment award- 
ing him the degree of 

Doctor of Laws. 

He also did law re- 

porting for the Times-Star which belonged 

to his l)rother Charles, and did it so well 

217 




Mrs. Horace D. Taft 




that Miirat Halstead gave him a job on the 
Commercial Gazette at six dollars a week. 

Though Halstead offered to give him a 
raise if he would stay — to graduate him from 
reporting to something higher — young Taft 
said he would do the graduation this time by 
himself, and so leaving newspaper work with 
his testimonials of efficiency as a law reporter, 
he went over to his father with his three sheep- 
skins and enough prizes to fill a cabinet, and 
became clerk in the office of Taft and Lloyd. 



CHAPTER XVI. 




'DDRESS of Hon. William H. Taft, 
Secretary of War, delivered before the 
Cooper Union, New York City, Friday, 
January 10, 1908: 

''Looking l)aek to a time when society was 
much ruder and simpler, we can trace the de- 
velopment of certain institutions that have 
come to be the basis of modern civilization. 
We can hardly conceive the right of personal 
lil)erty without private property, because in- 
volved in personal liberty is the principle that 
one sludl enjoy what his labor produces. 
Property and capital were first accumulated 
in implements, in arms, and personal l)elong- 
ings, the value of which depended almost 
wholly on the labor of their making. As 
man's industry and self-restraint grew, he pro- 
duced l)y his labor not only enough for his im- 
mediate necessities, but also a surplus, which 
he saved to be used in aid of future labor. By 
this means the amount which each man's labor 
would produce was thereafter increased. There 
followed at length the corollary that he whose 
savings from his own labor had increased the 
product of another's labor was entitled to en- 
joy a share in the joint result, and in the fixing 
of these shares was the first agreement between 

219 



labor and capital. The certainty that a man 
could enjoy as his own that which he produced 
or that which he saved, and so could dispose 
of it to another, was the institution of private 
property and the strongest motive for industry 
beyond that needed merely to live. 

This is what has led to the accumulation of 
capital in the world. It is the mainspring of 
human action which has raised man from the 
barbarism of the early ages to modern civiliza- 
tion. Without it he would still be in the al- 
ternating periods of starvation and plenty, and 
no happiness but that of gorging unrestrained 
appetite. Capital increased the amount of 
labor's production and reduced the cost in 
labor units of each unit produced. The cheap- 
er the cost of production, the less each one 
had to work to earn the aljsolute necessities of 
life, and the more time he had to earn its com- 
forts. And as the material comforts increased 
the more possible became happiness, and the 
greater the opportunity for the cultivation of 
the higher instincts of the human mind and 
soul. 

ALL BENEFITTED BY INCREASE OF CAPITAL 

It would seem, therefore, to be plainly for 
the benefit of every one to increase the amount 
of capital in use in the world, and this can 
only be done by maintaining the motive for 
its increase. 

220 



SECURITY OF CAPITAL GREAT BENEFIT TO LABOR 

La])or needs capital to secure the best pro- 
duction, while capital needs labor in produc- 
ing anything. The share of each laborer in 
the joint product is affected not exactly, but 
in a general way, by the amount of capital in 
use as compared with the number of those who 
labor. The more capital in use the more work 
there is to do, and the more work there is to 
do the more laborers are needed. The greater 
the need for laborers the better their pay per 
man. .Manifestly, it is in the direct interest 
of the la})orer that capital shall increase faster 
than the number of those who work. Every- 
thing, therefore, which legitimately tends to 
increase the accumulation of wealth and its 
use for pi'oduction will give each laborer a 
largei" share of the joint result of capital and 
labor. It will be observed that the laborer 
derives little or no benefit at all from wealth 
which is not used for production. Nothing is 
so likely to make wealth idle as insecurity of 
in\ested capital and property. It follows, as 
a necessary conclusion, that to destroy the 
guaranties of property is a direct blow at the 
interest of the workingman. 

MATERIAL GROWTH OF LAST TWO GENERATIONS 

The last two generations have witnessed a 
marvelous material development. It has been 

221 



effected by the assembling and enforced co- 
operation of simple elements that previously 
had been separately used. The organization 
of powerful machines or of delicate devices 
by which the producing power of one man in- 
creased fifty or one hundred-fold was, how- 
ever, not the only step in this great progress. 
Within the limits of efficient administration, 
the larger the amount to be produced at one 
time and under one management the less the 
expense per unit. Therefore, the aggregation 
of capital, the other essential element with 
labor in producing anything, became an ob- 
vious means of securing economy in the manu- 
facture of everything. Corporations had long 
been known as convenient commercial instru- 
ments for wielding combinations of capital. 
Charters were at first conferred by special act 
upon particular individuals and with varying 
powers, but so great became the advantage 
of incorporation, with the facility afforded for 
managing great corporations, and the limi- 
tation of the liabifity of investors, that it was 
deemed wise in this country, in order to pre- 
vent favoritism, to create corporations by 
general laws, and thus to afford to all who 
wished it the opportunity of assuming a cor- 
porate character in accordance therewith. 

The result was a great increase in the num- 
ber of the corporations and the assumption 



222 



of the corporate form by seven-eights of the 
active capital of the country. For a long 
time it was contended that the introduction 
of machines to save labor would work an in- 
jury to those who made things by hand, be- 
cause it enabled the capitalist to reduce the 
number of hands that he employed. The 
argument was a strong one, but the result has 
shown that it was erroneous in that it did not 
take into account two things — first, that the 
saving made by machinery so increased the 
profit on the capital and thus made so m4.ich 
new capital that while the demand for labor 
in one factory or business was reduced, the 
number of businesses and factories grew so 
that on the whole the demand for labor in- 
creased greatly; and, second, the use of ma- 
chinery so reduced the cost of production and 
price of both the necessities and comforts of 
life that the laborer's wages in money were 
given a substantial increase in purchasing 
power. 

PANIC SHOWS labor's INTEREST IN WELFARE 

OF CAPITAL 

What has been said, it seems to me, shows 
clearly enough that the laborer is almost as 
keenly interested in having capital increase 
as the capitalist himself. As already said, 
anything that makes capital idle, or which re- 

223 



duces or destroys it, must reduce both wages 
and the opportiuiity to earn wages. It only 
requires the effects of a panic through which 
we are passing, or through which we passed 
in 1873 or 1893, to show how closely united in 
a common interest we all are in modern so- 
ciety. We are in the same boat, and financial 
and business storms which affect one are cer- 
tain to affect all others. It was not so much 
so in olden times, when the population was 
scattered, and when each family supplied al- 
most all its own wants, when it raised its food 
on the farm and made its clothes in the winter, 
and depended but little on what it sold, and 
bought practically nothing. Now we live in a 
society that is strictly co-operative. Destroy 
the buildings of a city like San Francisco by an 
earthquake, and then learn the complete de- 
pendence that all the urban population has 
upon the rest of the country for more than a 
week's life. As the population increases, as 
the cost of production for our necessities and 
comforts is reduced by having them made in 
great quantities, and at a low price, we become 
dependent on the working of this co-operative 
mechanism to such a point that a clog in any 
one of the wheels which stops them causes 
stagnation and disaster. 

Therefore, to come back to my original 
proposition, the laboring man should be the 

224 



last to object to the rapid accumulation of 
capital in the hands of those who use it for the 
reproduction of capital. The thoughtful and 
intelligent laborer has, therefore, no feeling of 
hostility toward combinations of capital en- 
gaged in lawful business methods. 

The capitalist, however wealthy, who is 
willing to devote his nights and days to the 
investment of his capital in profitable lawful 
business or manufacture and who studies 
methods of reducing the cost of production 
and economizing expenses therein should be 
regarded with favor by the workingman, be- 
cause, while his motive is merely one of ac- 
cumulation, he is working not only for himself 
hut for labor and for society at large. The in- 
ventors on the one hand, and the men of judg- 
ment, courage, and executive ability, who 
have conceived and excuted the great lawful 
enterprises, on the other, have reaped princely 
pi'ofits, which the world may well accord them 
for the general good they have done. The 
wealth they accumulated is not wrested from 
labor, l)ut is only a part of that which has been 
added to the general stock l:)y the ingenuity, 
industry, judgment, and ability of those who 
enjoy it. If, with the growth in the popula- 
tion, the condition of man is to improve, new 
plans for the use of capital to better advantage 
must be devised, which shall, at the same time, 



225 



increase capital more rapidly than the popu- 
lation and reduce the cost of living. 

What has been said should not be misunder- 
stood. The men who have by economic or- 
ganization of capital at the same time in- 
creased the amount of the country's capital, 
increased the demand and price for labor, and 
reduced the cost of necessities are not philan- 
thropists. Their sole motive has been one of 
gain, and with the destruction of private prop- 
erty that motive would disappear, and so 
would the progress of society. The very ad- 
vantage to be derived from the security of 
private property in our civilization is that it 
turns the natural selfishness and desire for gain 
into the strongest motive for doing that with- 
out w^iich the upward development of man- 
kind would cease and retrogression would 
begin. 

FAIR LAWS FOR CAPITAL SHOULD BE FAVORED 

BY LABOR 

It is greatly in the interest of the working- 
man, therefore, that corporate capital should 
be fairly treated. Any injustice done to it 
acts directly upon the wage-earners who must 
look to corporate wealth for their employment. 
Take the large body of railroad employees. 
Any drastic legislation which tends unjustly 
to reduce the legitimate earnings of the rail- 

226 



road must in the end fall with heavy weight 
upon the employees of that railroad, because 
the manager will ultimately turn toward wages 
as the place where economy can l)e effected. 
So in respect to taxation, if the corporation is 
made to bear more than its share of the pub- 
lic burdens, it reacts directly, first, upon its 
stockholders, and then upon its employees. 
In the election of 1896, when the cry was for 
free sih'er, a great many wage-earners in that 
campaign of education were enabled to see that 
while the serious impairment of the standard 
of value l)y going on to a free-silver basis might 
work advantageously for the debtor class, the 
lal)oring m.an belonged to the creditor class. 
The wage-earners had no debts of any amount 
to pay; they were benefited by having their 
wages paid in the best currency possible; and 
they were dii'ectly interested that their em- 
ployers with capital should collect the debts 
due them in the same medium in which those 
del)ts had been contracted. The truth was 
that the wage-earners w^ere in effect part of the 
moneyed classes of this country in the sense 
that their interest and that of the capitalist 
was identically the same in recjuiring the hon- 
est payment of debts. 

We are suffering now from a panic. It was 
brought on, in my judgment, by the exhaus- 
tion of free capital the world over, by the lack 

227 



of an elastic system of currency, and also by a 
lack of confidence in our business fabric pro- 
duced in Europe through the revelations in 
certain great corporations of business dishon- 
esty, corruption, and unlawfulness. It has 
been necessary for us to purify some of our 
business methods; but the purification cannot 
stop the panic. It will doubtless make an- 
other in the far future less likely. Meantime 
all must suffer, both the innocent and guilty, 
and the innocent more than the guilty. Cer- 
tainly the laborer who is thrown out of his 
employment by the hard times is innocent 
and suffers more than the capitalist, whether 
innocent or guilty, who has money to live on 
meantime until prosperity shall be restored. 
The conclusion I seek to reach is that 
the workingman who entertains a prejudice 
against the lawful capitalist because he is 
wealthy, who votes with unction for the men 
who are urging unjust and unfair legislation 
against him, and who makes demagogic ap- 
peals to acquire popular support in what they 
are doing is standing in his own light, is blind 
to his own interests, and is cutting off the limb 
on which he sits. It is to direct the interest 
of the workingman to use careful discrimina- 
tion in approving or disapproving proposed 
legislation of this kind and to base his con- 
clusion and vote on the issue whether the pro- 

228 



vision is fair or just, and not on the assump- 
tion that any legislation that subjects a cor- 
poration to a burden must necessarily be in 
the interest of the workingman. What I am 
anxious to emphasize is that there is a wide 
economic and business field in which the inter- 
ests of the wealthiest capitalist and of the 
humblest laborer are exactly the same. 

WHERE LABOR AND CAPITAL ARE NECESSARILY 
OPPOSED LABOR UNIONS NECESSARY 

But while it is in the common interest of 
labor and capital to increase the fruits of 
production, yet in determining the share of 
each in the product, their interests are plainly 
opposed. Though the law of supply and de- 
mand will doubtless in the end be the most 
potent influence in fixing this division, yet 
during the gradual adjustment to the chang- 
ing markets and the varying financial con- 
ditions, capital will surely have the advantage 
iniless labor takes luiited action. During the 
betterment of Inisiness conditions, organized 
la])or, if acting with reasonable discretion, can 
secure much greater promptness in the ad- 
vance of wages than if it were left to the slower 
operation of natural laws, and in the same 
way, as hard times come on, the too eager em- 
ployer may be restrained from undue haste in 
reducing wages. The organization of capital 

229 



into corporations with the position of advan- 
tage which this gives it in a dispute with 
single lal3orers over wages, makes it absolutely 
necessary for labor to unite to maintain itself. 
For instance, how could workingmen de- 
pendent on each day's wages for living dare to 
take a stand which might leave them without 
employment if they had not by small assess- 
ments accumulated a common fund for their 
support during such emergency. In union 
they must sacrifice some independence of 
action, and there have sometimes been l:)ad 
results from the tyranny of the majority in 
such cases ; but the hardships which have fol- 
lowed impulsive resort to extreme measures 
have had a good effect to lessen them. Ex- 
perience, too, is leading to classification among 
the members, so that the cause of the skilled 
and worthy shall not be leveled down to that 
of the lazy and neglectful . This is being done, 
I am told, l)y what is called the maximum 
and minimum wage. 

CONTROVERSY CONCERNS MORE THAN WAGES 

The diverse interest of capital and labor are 
wider considerably than the mere pecuniary 
question of the amount of wages. They cover 
all the terms of the employment and include 
not only the compensation but also the cir- 
cumstances that affect the comfort and con- 

230 



ditioii of the workingmen, including the daily 
hours of work, the place in which they work, 
the provisions for their safety from accident, 
and everything else that is germane to the 
employment. 

GOOD EFFECT OF LABOR UNIONS — LEGISLATION 

The effect of the organization of labor, on 
the whole, has been highly beneficial in secur- 
ing better terms for employment for the whole 
la})oring community. I have not the slightest 
doubt, and no one who knows anything about 
the subject can doubt, that the existence of 
labor unions steadies wages. More than this, 
it has l)rought about an amelioration of the 
condition of the lal:)orers in another way. The 
really practical justification for popular repre- 
sentative government rests on the truth that 
any set of men or class in a political com- 
munity are better able to look after their own 
interests and more certain to keep those in- 
terests constantly in mind than the members 
of any other class or set of men, however altru- 
istic. This truth is fully exemplified in the 
course which legislation has taken since labor 
has organized and has made a systematic 
effort to secure laws to protect the working- 
man by mandatory provision against the 
heartlessness or negligence of the employer. 
Labor unions have given great attention to 

231 



factory acts which secure a certain amount of 
air and provision for the safety of employees, 
to the safety-appUance acts in respect to rail- 
roads, to fixing the law governing the liability 
of railroads, to their employees for injuries 
sustained by accident, to the restriction of 
child labor in factories, and to similar remedial 
legislation. The interest of the workingman 
has been more direct in these matters than 
even that of the philanthropists, and he has 
pressed the matter until in the legislation of 
nearly every state the effect of his influence 
is seen. 

WISE ATTITUDE OF CAPITALIST TOWARD OR- 
GANIZED LABOR 

What the capitalist, who is the employer of 
labor, must face is that the organization of 
labor — the labor union — is a permanent con- 
dition in the industrial world. It has come 
to stay. If the employer would consult his 
own interest he must admit this and act on it. 
Under existing conditions the blindest course 
that an employer of labor can pursue is to de- 
cline to recognize labor unions as the con- 
trolling influence in the labor market and to 
insist upon dealing only with his particular 
employees. Time and time again one has 
heard the indignant expression of a manager 
of some great industrial enterprise, that he did 

232 



not propose to have the labor union run his 
business; that he would deal with his own 
men and not with outsiders. 

The time has passed in which that attitude 
can be assumed with any hope of successfully 
maintaining it. WTiat the wise manager of 
corporate enterprise employing large num- 
bers of laborers will do, is to receive the lead- 
ers of labor imions with courtesy and respect 
and listen to their claims and arguments as 
they would to the managers of another 
corporate enterprise with whom they were to 
make an important contract affecting the 
business between them. At times some labor 
leaders are intoxicated with the immense 
power that they exercise in representing thou- 
sands of their fellows-workers and are weak 
enough to exhil)it this spirit of arrogance. 
Dealing with them is trying to the patience of 
the employer. So, too, propositions from 
labor unions sometimes are so exorbitant in 
respect to the terms of employment as literally 
to deprive the manager of the control which he 
ought to retain over the laborers employed in 
his business. This is to be expected in a 
comparatively new movement and is not to 
be made a ground for condemning it. 

On the other hand, the arrogance is not con- 
fined to one side. We all of us know that 
there are a number of employers who have 

233 



the spirit of intolerance and sense of power 
because of their immense resources, and that 
their attitude is neither concihatory nor hkely 
to lead to an adjustment of differences. The 
wise men among the employers of lal^or and 
the labor leaders are those who discard all ap- 
pearance of temper or sense of power and at- 
tempt by courteous consideration and calm 
discussion to reach a common ground. One 
of the great difficulties in peaceful adjust- 
ments of controversies l^etween lal)or and 
capital is the refusal of each side to take time 
to understand the attitude of the other. The 
question which troul:>les the capitalist, of 
course, is how an increase in wages or a main- 
tenance of wages will affect the profits of his 
business. The question which troubles the 
workingman is how much he can live on and 
what he can save from his wages. And these 
things are affected by many different circum- 
stances, including, on the one hand, the con- 
dition of the market for the merchandise 
which is being manufactured and the other 
elements in the cost of operating the enter- 
prise, and, on the other, the rate of rent and 
the price of necessaries of life. If the leaders 
of the workingmen believe that the employer 
is considering their argument and weighing it, 
and the labor leaders manifest an interest in 
the conditions with reference to expense and 

234 



profit to the employer, the possibihty of an 
adjustment is much greater than when each 
occupies a stiff and resentful attitude against 
the other. 

The great advantage of such organizations 
as the Civic Federation is that they luring 
capitalists and labor leaders together into a 
common forum of discussion and cast a flood 
of light in which each party to the controversy 
deri\'es much valual)le information as to the 
mental attitude and just claims of the other. 
I do not think it a mere dream either to hope 
that by reason of this friendly contact between 
employers and labor leaders that labor unions 
may be induced to assist the cause of honest 
industry by l)ringing to bear the moral force of 
the public opinion of the union to improve the 
sobriety, industry, skill, and fidelity to the 
employer's interests of the employee. In- 
deed, the rules of some labor unions already 
contain e\idence of a desire to effect such a 
result. 

ARBITRATION 

This brings me to the ciuestion of arbitration. 
It goes without saying that where an adjust- 
ment cannot ])e reached by negotiation, it is 
far better for the community at large that the 
differences be settled by submission to an im- 
partial tribunal and agreement to abide its 

235 



judgment than to resort to a trial of resistance 
and endurance by lockouts and strikes and 
the other means used by the parties to in- 
dustrial controversies in fighting out the issue 
between them. Not infrequently one side or 
the other — but generally the capitalist side 
■ — will say in response to a suggestion of sub- 
mission to arbitration that there is nothing 
to arbitrate; that their position is so impreg- 
nable from the standpoint of reason that they 
could not abide judgment against them by any 
tribunal in a matter subject to their voluntary 
action. 

In such a case, arbitration as a method of 
settlement is impossible, unless the system of 
compulsory arbitration is adopted. It is a 
very serious question whether under our 
Constitution a decree of a tribunal under a 
compulsory arbitration law could be enforced 
against the side of the laborers. It would 
come very close to the violation of the thir- 
teenth amendment, which forbids involun- 
tary servitude. It has been frequently de- 
cided that no injunction can issue which will 
compel a man to perform his contract of em- 
ployment, and that on the ground that while 
the breach of his contract may give rise to a 
claim for damages, he cannot be compelled, 
except in the pecuHar employments of enlist- 
ment in the army and service on a ship, especi- 

236 



ally to perform a labor contract. Hence, 
compulsory arbitration does not seem to be 
the solution. 

MASSACHUSETTS PLAN 

A method has l^een adopted in Massa- 
chusetts and some other states, and, indeed, 
has practically been adopted by President 
Roosevelt, in respect to the settlement of 
these labor controversies which has substan- 
tial and practical results. That is a provision 
of law by which an impartial tribunal shall 
investif^ate all the conditions surrounding the 
dispute, take sworn evidence, draft a con- 
clusion in respect to the merits of the issue and 
publish it to the world. There often are dis- 
putes between great corporate employers and 
their employees which eventuate in a strike, 
and the public finds it impossible to obtain 
any reliable information in respect to the mat- 
ter because the statements from both sides are 
so conflicting. 

We cannot have a great labor controversy 
or a great strike without its affecting injurious- 
ly a great many other people than those 
actually engaged in it. The truth is, that 
the class of capital and the class of labor repre- 
sented on the one side by the managers of the 
great corporations and on the other side l)y 
the leaders of the great labor unions do not 

237 



include all the members of the community by 
a great deal. In addition to them are the 
farming community, the small merchants and 
storekeepers, the professional men, the class 
of clerks, and many other people who have 
nothing to do either with manual labor- - 
skilled or unskilled — and who do not own 
shares in the stock of inchistrial or other enter- 
prises retjuiring capital to carry them on. 
These are the middlemen, so to speak, in the 
controversy. The views of the members of 
this body make up the public opinion that, it 
is so often said, finally decides labor controver- 
sies. It is for the information of this body 
in the community that such a provision as that 
of the Massachusetts law is admirably adapted. 
That statute does not provide for compulsory 
arbitration, Init it comes as near it in prac- 
tical affairs as our system of constitutional 
law will permit. 

ANTHRACITE COAL ARBITRATION 

One of the instances, most striking in the 
history of this country, of the possibility of 
l)ringing capital and lal)or together to con- 
sider the question from a standpoint of reason- 
al^leness and patriotism is the settlement of 
the Pennsylvania anthracite coal strike. That 
of course, was bv arbitration. And it was 
brought about through the influence of the 

238 



President, who had no official relation to either 
side, but who as the first citizen of the country 
was deeply interested in preventing the cata- 
clysm to which things seemed to be tending 
in the anthracite coal region. The perma- 
nence of the settlement which was there ef- 
fected is a triumphant vindication of what 
was done. And it illustrates the possil)ilities 
when op])onents in such controversies can be 
brought face to face and in the presence of 
impartial persons be made to discuss all the 
circumstances surrounding the issue. 

STRIKES COSTLY 

I shall not stop to cite statistics to show the 
enormous loss in the savings of labor as well 
as the savings of capitalists which strikes and 
lockouts have involved. Time was when the 
first resort of the labor leader was to order a 
strike. But experience has taught both sides 
the loss entailed, and strikes are now much 
less lightly entered upon, especially by the 
more conservative lal)or unions. Everybody 
admits their destructive character and that 
all means should be resorted to to avoid them. 
Still, there are times when nothing but a strike 
will accomjjlish the legitimate purpose of the 
laborer. 

LEC^AL RIGHT TO STRIKE 

And. now, what is the right of thelal)or 

239 



union with respect to the strike? I know that 
there has been at times a suggestion in the law 
that no strike can be legal. I deny this. Men 
have the right to leave the employ of their em- 
ployer in a body in order to impose on him as 
great an inconvenience as possible to induce 
him to come to their terms. They have the 
right in their lal^or unions to delegate to their 
leaders the power to say when to strike. They 
have the right in advance to accumulate by 
contributions from all members of the labor 
union a fund which shall enable them to live 
during the pendency of the strike. They have 
the right to use persuasion with all other 
laborers who are invited to take their places, 
in order to convince them of the advantage to 
labor of united action. It is the business of 
courts and of the police to respect these rights 
with the same degree of care that they respect 
the rights of owners of capital to the protec- 
tion of their property and business. 

CHANGE OF PUBLIC SENTIMENT TOWARD UNIONS 

I have thus considered the necessity and 
justification of labor unions and their legal 
power. Those leaders of labor unions who 
have learned to pursue conservative methods 
have added greatly to the strength of their 
cause, and have given the unions a much 
better standing with the great body of the 

240 



people who are neither capitaKsts nor laborers, 
and only favor the greatest good for the great- 
est ninn])er. I am inclined to think that the 
popular resentment against the revelations of 
corporate lawlessness may have had some- 
thing to do with this change of sentiment. A 
resort to violence, or other form of lawless- 
ness, on ])ehalf of a lal)or union, properly 
merits and receives the sharpest condennia- 
tion from the public, and is <{uite likely to lose 
the cause of labor its support hi the particular 
controversv. 

NECESSITY FOR COXSIDERING ABUSES 

I have been discussing the relations of 
ca})ital and labor and the lawful scope of their 
action, on the assumption that they do not 
\'iolate the law oi- the rights of any member of 
the community, and I ^^ni glad to say that I 
believe that this assumption is correct with 
respect to the great majority of those engaged 
as capitalists and of those engaged as wage- 
earners; but it would be a very insufficient 
consideration of the relations of labor and 
capital if I did not take up the abuses, law- 
lessness, and infi-actiohs of others' rights, of 
which some of the combiners of capital and 
some of the wage-earners — members of lal^or 
unions — have been from time to time guilty 
and did not consider further the remedy for 
the restraint of these evils. 

241 



ABUSES OF CAPITAL COMBINATIONS 

For the sake of clearness in examining into 
the character of corporate evils and abuses 
which need restraint and punishment, we may- 
divide corporations guilty of them into in- 
dustrial corporations organized for the purpose 
of manufacture and sale of merchandise, and 
into railroad and other corporations organized 
for the transportation of passengers and goods. 

INDUSTRIAL CORPORATIONS 

Let us deal first with industrial corporations. 
The valuable consideration moving to the pub- 
lic for conferring the franchise necessary in the 
incorporation of such companies is the public 
benefit to be derived in the lowering of prices. 
The temptation to the managers, however, 
when the enterprises become very large, is to 
suppress competition and- maintain prices, and 
thus to deny to the public its proper share in 
the benefit sought to be attained and to ap- 
propriate to the corporate owners all the 
profit derived from improved facilities of pro- 
duction. One method of suppressing compe- 
tition is by agreements between all the large 
concerns engaged in the same business to 
limit the output and maintain prices. Such 
agreements are usually secret and are difficult 
for public officials to obtain proof of; but when 
these agreements do become public and are 

242 



successfully prosecuted, tliis method is en- 
joined and abandoned, and the independent 
corporations that acted together under secret 
agreements to maintain prices are absorbed 
into one great corporation, so that the large 
proportion of the producing capital in a single 
industry is placed under one control. Then 
competition with the trust, thus formed, is 
excluded by ingenious contracts of sale with 
middlemen, distributers, and retail dealers, 
who are coerced by the agents of the trust into 
a maintenance of retail prices and a with- 
drawal of all patronage from smaller inde- 
pendent and competing producers through the 
knowledge and fear that the trust in times of 
active demand for its products will either re- 
fuse to sell or will sell only at discriminating 
prices to those who do not comply with its 
demand. 

ABUSES OF RAILWAY CORPORATIONS 

The second class of coporations — that is, tha 
railway and transportation companies — have 
misused their great powers to promote the un- 
lawful purpose of these industrial combina- 
tions. One of the largest elements going to 
make up the selling price of a commodity in 
any part of the country is the cost of trans- 
portation from the place of manufacture. If 
one business concern can secure lower rates 

243 



of freight in the transportation of its mer- 
chandise to its customers than another, the 
former will necessarily drive the latter out of 
business. This is exactly what has happened. 
The largest concerns controlling enormous 
shipments and al^le as Ijetween competing 
roads to determine which shall enjoy the pro- 
fits of the transportation, have induced and 
sometimes coerced the railway companies into 
giving them either secret rates or open pul)lic 
rates so deftly arranged with a view to the con- 
ditions of the larger concern, as to make it 
impossil)le for its would-l)e lousiness compet- 
itors to live. The rebate of a very small 
amount per hundredweight of goods shipped 
by any one of the great industrial corporations 
will pay enormous dividends on the capital 
invested. The evils of railroad management 
can he summed up in the words "unjust dis- 
crimination." 

INTEREST OF W' AGE-EARNERS IN SUPPRESSION 
OF THESE ABUSES 

Wage-earners are not injuriously affected 
in their terms of employment directly by such 
violations of law ])y coml)inations of capital as 
I have described. But they are very seriously 
affected in another way. The maintenance of 
such unlawful monopolies is for the purpose 
of keeping up the prices of the necessities of 

244 



life, and this necessarily reduces the purchas- 
ing power of the wages which the wage-earners 
receive. This is a serious detriment to them 
and a real reason why they should condemn 
such corporate abuses and sympathize with 
the effort to stamp them out. It is not that 
they should sympathize with an effort to de- 
stroy such great corporate enterprises ])e- 
cause they employ enormous numbers of wage- 
earners and lawfully and normally increase the 
capital from which the wage fund is drawn, 
but they should and do vigorously sustain 
the policy of the Government in bringing 
these great corporate enterprises within the 
law and reciuiring them to conduct their busi- 
ness in accordance with the statutes of their 
country. I have already said that they should 
discriminate in respect to legislation affect- 
ing their corporation, and should not assume 
that simply because it burdened the enterprise 
fi'om which they derived their wages it was 
in their interest; Ijut I would iiivoke with the 
utmost emphasis their approval of the pres- 
ent interstate-commerce law as needed to keep 
the railroads within the law. 

VIOLENCE IN INTEREST OF CAPITAL 

In rare instances corporate managers have 
entered into a course of violence to maintain 
their side of a labor controversy. They have 

245 



justified it on the ground that they were simply 
fighting fire with fire, and that if the la])or 
union proceeded to use dynamite they would 
use dynamite in return. I cannot too strongly 
condemn this course or this argument. No 
amount of lawlessness on the part of the lal^or 
striker will justify the lawlessness on the part 
of the employer. Such a course means a re- 
currence of civil war and anarchy. 

A second abuse which employers are some- 
times guilty of is what is technically known 
as blacklisting, by which laboring men, solely 
because they may have been advocates of a 
strike, or have been against a compromise in a 
labor dispute, are tagged by one employer of 
labor, and all other employers of labor are for- 
bidden on penalty of lousiness ostracism to 
give them a means of livelihood. This is un- 
lawful and should be condemned. It is the 
counterpart of the boycott, or indeed, it is 
itself a boycott in one form, to which I shall 
make reference hereafter. 

ABUSES OF LABOR 

What are the abuses which not infrequently 
proceed from some of the members of united 
labor? They are, first, open violence and 
threats of violence to prevent the employment 
of other workingmen in the places which such 
members have left on a strike, with the hope 

246 



that they will thus prevent their former em- 
ployer from being able to carry on his lousi- 
ness. Of course, this is the most effective 
method, if successful, of bringing the employer 
to terms. If the demand for labor is such 
that many persons of the same craft as those » 
who strike, not members of the labor union, 
are idle, it will be easy for the employer to re- 
place the strikers. They will be out of a Job 
and he will continue his lousiness. 

It follows, therefore, that the wisest time 
for skilled or other labor to strike is when there 
is a great demand for labor, and it is difficult 
for the employer to replace those who leave 
him. But if there are other laborers avail- 
able, then there are only two ways by which 
the strikers can accomplish their purpose, eith- 
er by actual or threatened violence to those 
who would take their places, or by persuading 
them in the interest of all labor that they 
should join their union, receive the benefits of 
the common fund for support during enforced 
idleness, and join in the refusal to aid the em- 
ployer in his extremity. Violence and threat- 
ened violence are, of course, unlawful, and are 
strongly to be condemned. Persuasion not 
amounting in effect to duress is lawful. 



BOYCOTTS 

Another method by which wage-earners 

247 



sometimes attempt to coerce their employer 
into acquiescence in their demands is what is 
called a boycott. It is a method by which the 
striking employees and their fellows of their 
union attempt to coerce the whole community 
^into a withdrawal of all association from their 
former employer by threatening the rest of the 
community that if they do not withdraw their 
association from such employer they will visit 
each one of them with similar treatment. 
This is a cruel instrinnent and has been de- 
clared to be unlawful in every court with 
whose decision I am familiar. The Anthra- 
cite Strike Commission, which was selected at 
the instance of President Roosevelt and which 
had upon it such a distinguished jurist as 
Judge George Gray, of Delaware, and Mr. 
Clark, the president of one of the great labor 
organizations of the country, and other men 
entirely indifferent as between labor and capi- 
tal — men selected by agreement between the 
employers and the employees in that great 
controversy — used the following language in 
respect to the boycott : — 

' It also becomes our duty to condemn an- 
other less violent, but not less reprehensible, 
form of attack upon those rights and liber- 
ties of the citizens which the public opinion 
of civilized countries recognizes and protects. 
The right and liberty to pursue a lawful calling 

248 



and to lead a peaceahle life, free from moles- 
tation or attack, concerns the comfort and 
happiness of all men, and the denial of them 
means the destruction of one of the greatest, 
if not the greatest, of the Ijenefits which the 
social organization confers. What is popularly 
known as the boycott (a word of evil omen 
and unhappy origin) is a form of coercion by 
which a combination of many persons seek 
to work their will upon a single person, or upon 
a few persons, by compelling others to abstain 
from social or l)eneficial business intercourse 
with such person or persons. Carried to the 
extent sometimes practiced in aid of a strike, 
and as was in some instances pi'acticed in con- 
nection with the late anthracite strike, it is a 
cruel weapon of aggression, and its use im- 
moral and anti-social. 

To say this is not to deny the legal right of 
anv man or set of men voluntarily to refrain 
from social intercourse or business relations 
with any persons whom he or they, with or 
without good reason, dislike. This may some- 
times be un-Christian, but it is not illegal. 
But when it is a conc;erted purpose of a num- 
ber of persons not only to abstain themselves 
from such intercourse, but to render the life 
of their victim miserable by persuading and 
intimidating others to refrain, such purpose 
is a malicious one, and the concerted attempt 

249 



to accomplish it is a conspiracy at common 
law, and merits and should receive the punish- 
ment due to such a crime.' 

I may add that the same Commission visited 
blacklisting with similar condemnation. 

LEGAL REMEDIES FOR ABUSES 

What are the remedies by which a person 
injured may be protected against the illegal 
acts of combinations of capital and of com- 
binations of labor? First, if the injury sought 
to be inflicted is one which will be inadequately 
compensated for in money damages, one can 
apply to a court of equity to prevent the in- 
jury from being done, and that court can, in 
advance of the proposed violation of the plain- 
tiff's rights, determine exactly what those 
rights are and advise the defendent accord- 
ingly; or he can wait until the acts are per- 
formed and then, by suit for damages, he can 
make himself whole if he can. 

REMEDY BY INJUNCTION PREFERRED 

In cases of unlawful combinations of capi- 
tal, as well as of such combinations of labor, 
the method in equity by securing an injunc- 
tion seems to be preferred by those who are 
about to be injured. In every statute which 
has been enacted to denounce the improper 
use of capital to secure illegal restraints of 

250 



trade and illegal monopolies, a specific pro- 
vision has been inserted enabling those who 
are injured or affected to bring an equity pro- 
ceeding to enjoin the carrying on of the im- 
proper methods about to be attempted. In 
the same way, when labor unions or members 
of labor unions or workingmen on a strike 
resort to methods destructive of the business 
of their employer and his property, the em- 
ployer deems it the most convenient method 
of defending himself to apply to a court of 
e(iuity for an injunction against those who 
give indication of their intention to carry on 
such methods. 

CRITICISM OF INJUNCTION REMEDY 

This remedy by injunction has been very 
severely denounced and criticised, on the 
ground that it places in the hands of a judge 
legislative, judicial, and executive powers; 
that it enables him to make the law for one 
case against a particular indi\'idual and if he 
does not abide by it to try him and punish 
him. When this objection is analyzed it is 
found to be unjust. 

CRITICISM UNJUST 

An injunction suit does not differ in the 
slightest degree from a suit brought after the 
event, so far as the function of the court is 

251 



concerned in declaring the law, except that 
the court declares the law in respect of antici- 
pated facts rather than in respect of those 
which have happened. He has no authorit}^ 
to make law. In an injunction suit, as in any 
other suit, he merely interprets the law and 
applies it to the circumstances. His judg- 
ment in the one case involves exactly the 
same precedents and the same rules of law as in 
the other. In order to save the party plain- 
tiff from having to bring suit to recover for 
an injury that he is going to suffer, he says, 
^This is an unlawful injury; and as you 
threaten to do it I enjoin you from doing it.' 

PREVENTION BETTER THAN CURE 

Certainly, prevention is better than cure, 
and it is no wonder that a man who is about 
to have his business injured or his property 
destroyed prefers to prevent the injury rather 
than to allow it to occur. Neither a suit in 
damages nor a criminal prosecution is likely 
to bring him back his property or to restore 
his loss. Moreover, in cases of boycott, in 
many states there is no provision for criminal 
prosecution. 

HISTORY OF WRIT OF INJUNCTION 

I wish to invite attention to this writ of in- 
junction, which is one of the most beneficial 

252 



remedies known to the law, and to trace its 
history and show how useful it has been 
in the past for the purpose of preventing in- 
justice. 

Originally, in England, from which we get 
our procedure and most of our law, the King 
was supposed to decide cases through his 
judges of the King's bench or of the common 
pleas. The common law was rather rigid and 
severe, especially in holding persons to the 
letter of their contracts, and judgments went 
for the plaintiff on this strict interpretation 
that really shocked the conscience. And so, 
after a while, the |)eoi)l(^ began to ap})eal to 
the King to save them from the severity of his 
own courts. He turned the matter over to the 
loi'd keeper of the great seal, and said : ' Work 
out ecjuity in this case.' The way the lord 
k(vj)er worked it out was not to issue any di- 
rection to the coui't of King's l)ench or the 
connnon pleas; but he took hold of the plain- 
tiff in the suit and threatened him with ex- 
connnunication if h(^ did not stop the suit and 
do that justice which ec^uity required. 

In other words, he enjoined the plaintiff 
from proceeding with the suit in the court of 
the King's bench or of the common pleas, as 
the case might be, and brought him into what 
grew to be a court of equity known as the 
court of chancery. As the lord keeper in 

253 



those days was an ecclesiastic, he exercised 
power over the consciences of the Ktigants, 
and the threat of excommunication was gen- 
erally sufficient to enforce what he wished. 
Subsequently, the lord keeper ceased to be a 
bishop and became known as the lord chancel- 
lor, and after the court of equity had been 
established, violation of the injunction was 
punished by imprisonment instead of by ex- 
communication. 

USEFULNESS OF WRIT 

Let me take a case that illustrates the use- 
fulness of the writ of injunction. At common 
law, when a man wished to borrow $500 on his 
farm, which was worth $10,000, he gave a 
mortgage to secure it. The mortgage was a 
conveyance of the title to the land with the 
condition that the title should become abso- 
lute if the money was not paid on the date 
mentioned in the mortgage. If the money 
was not paid, the creditor could put the debtor 
out of possession by suit and for $500 become 
the owner of a farm which was worth $10,000. 
In such a case the lord keeper said to the 
plaintiff: 'Here, you are trying to get this 
farm for $500 when it is worth $10,000. That 
is not equitable, and I will not let you do it. 
I will enjoin you from continuing that suit, 
because you are after something that is un- 

254 



just, and I will make you come in before me 
and settle this, and if the defendant is not able 
to pay the $500 and interest we wdll sell the 
farm and pay a'ou the $500 and interest and 
turn over the balance to the defendant.' 
That was an ecpitable decision, and it was 
made effective by the power of injunc- 
tion. 

A man leases a farm, with a row of l)eautiful 
trees, to a tenant. The tenant advises him 
that he is goin<i; to cut the trees down during 
his tenancy. AMiat is the landlord to do? Is 
he to let the tenant cut his trees down and 
then sue him for the value of the trees? No. 
Eciuity suggests the remedy that he go into 
court and enjoin the man and prevent injury 
which could not l)e compensated for in dam- 
ages. 

A man owns a lucrative Inisiness and a 
numerous set of people conceive a prejudice 
against him or a desire to injure him, and 
institute a boyciott against him and threaten 
everybody that they will withdraw their 
patronage which is \'alual^le from anybody 
that has anything to do with him. In that 
way he loses a lot of customers. Now, is it 
not better that he should apply to the court to 
enjoin them from taking that course and in- 
flicting injury on him that he cannot measure 
in damages than that they should be permitted 

255 



to destroy his business and he should have the 
burden of a lawsuit afterwards with all the 
uncertainty as to damages and the doubt 
about getting his money even if he secured 
a judgment? 

So, too, where a body of strikers by con- 
tinued acts of violence, trespass, constituting 
a nuisance, attempt to stop his business, the 
injury he suffers, it is peculiarly difficult for 
him to estimate, and a judgment for money 
would be a very inadequate remedy. 

ABUSE OF WRIT OF INJUNCTION 

But it said that the writ of injunction has 
been abused in this country in lal)or disputes 
and that a numljer of injunctions have been 
issued that ought never to have been issued. 
I agree that there has been almse in this re- 
gard. President Roosevelt referred to it in 
his last message. I think it has grown chiefly 
from the practice of issuing injunctions ex 
parte; that is, without giving notice or hearing 
to the defendant. The injustice that is 
worked is in this wise : Men leave employ- 
ment on a strike intending to conduct them- 
selves peaceably and within the law. The 
counsel for the employer visits a judge, pre- 
sents an affidavit in which an averment is 
made that violence is threatened, injury to 
property and injury to business. And accord- 

256 



ingly on this affidavit the judge issues a tem- 
porary restaining order ex parte against the 
defendants who are named in the petition or 
bilL The broadest expressions are used in 
the writ — frequently too broad. The de- 
fendants are workingmen, not lawyers. They 
are not used to the processes of the court. 
The expressions of the writ are formidal:)le. 
A doubt arises in their minds as to the legality 
of what they are about to do. The stiffening 
is taken out of the strike, the men drop back, 
and the strike is over, and all before thev have 
had a chance in coiu't to demonstrate, as they 
might, that they had no intention of doing 
anything unlawful or doing any violence. 

FAVORS REQUIRING NOTICE 

Under the original Federal judiciary act it 
was not permissible for the Federal courts to 
issue an injunction without notice. There had 
to be notice and, of course, a hearing. I 
think it would ])e entirely right in this class 
of cases to amend the law and provide that 
no temperorary restraining order should issue 
at all imtil after notice and a hearing. Then 
the court could be advised by both sides with 
reference to the exact situation, and the 
danger of issuing a writ too broad or of issuing 
a writ without good ground would generally 
be avoided. 

257 



FAVORS REQUIRING DIFFERENT JUDGE IN CON- 
TEMPT PROCEEDINGS FROM THE JUDGE 
ISSUING INJUNCTION 

There is another objection made and that 
is that the judge who issues the writ has a 
personal sensitiveness in respect to its viola- 
tion that gives him a bias when he comes to 
hear contempt proceedings on a charge of 
disobedience to the order and makes it unfair 
for him to impose a punishment if conviction 
follows. I think few judges on the bench 
would allow such a consideration to affect 
them, but I agree that there is a popular doubt 
of the judge's impartial attitude in such a case. 
For that reason, I would favor a provision al- 
lowing the defendant in contempt proceedings 
to challenge the judge issuing the injunction, 
and to call for the designation of another judge 
to hear the issue. I don't think it would 
seriously delay the hearing of the cause, and 
it would give more confidence in the impar- 
tiality of the decision. It is almost as im- 
portant that there should be the apprearance 
of justice as that there should be an actual 
administration of it. 

OBJECTION TO TRIAL OF CONTEMPT BY JURY 

But now it is said, Why not have a trial by 
jury? The reason why this is objectionable 

258 



is because of the delay and of the character of 
jury trial. It would greatly weaken the 
authority and force of an order of court if it 
were known that it was not to be enforced ex- 
cept after a yerdict of jury. Neyer in the 
history of judicial procedure has such a pro- 
yision interyened l)etween the issue of an or- 
der of court and its enforcement. I am quite 
willing to hedge around the exercise of the 
power to issue the writ of injunction as many 
safeguards as are necessary to invite the at- 
tention of the court to the care with which he 
shall issue the writ; but to introduce another 
contest before the writ shall be enforced, with 
all the imcertainties and digressions and preju- 
dices that are injected into a jury trial, would 
be to make the order of the court go for noth- 
ing. 

PLAINTIFF ENTITLED TO ANCIENT REMEDY OF 

INJUNCTION 

What the plaintiff in such cases is asking to 
secure is a protection to his property and his 
t)usiness from a constant series of attacks. 
An injunction offer's a remedy which is not 
giyen either by criminal prosecutions or the 
suit for damages. The plaintiff is not trying 
to punish somebody; he is trying to protect 
himself after the court shall haye defined 
what his rights are. That right has been his 

259 



in cases of this general character for years, 
and why should he be asked to give it up 
now? 

LABOR UNIONS SHOULD CARRY DECISIONS THEY 
CONDEMN TO COL'RTS OF LAST RESORT 

If, whenever a court issues an injunction 
that is improperly worded, that goes too far, 
or that ought never to have been granted, the 
labor union interested will take the matter 
up to the court of last resort, it will secure a 
series of decisions that will prevent the issue 
of injunctions such as some of those they now 
complain of. The labor union has a fund, and 
it could not be devoted to a better purpose 
than fixing the law exactly as it should be 
under the decision of the court of last resort. 
I should not object at all to the definition of 
the rights of employer and of the withdrawing 
employee in labor controversies by statute. I 
should think that an excellent way of making 
clear what is lawful and what is unlawful. 
But until that course is pursued, the rights of 
the parties to such controversies should be 
carefully defined by courts of last resort, and 
when this is done courts of first instance will 
keep within lawful bounds. 

CONCLUSION 

I fear I have wearied you with this long 
discussion. I have attempted to treat the 

260 



matter from an impartial standpoint and 
without prejudice for or against capital, or 
for or against labor. There is a class of cap- 
italists who look upon labor unions as per se 
vicious and a class of radical labor unionists 
who look upon capital as labor's natural 
enemy. I believe, however, that the great 
majority of each class are gradually becoming 
more conciliatory in their attitude, the one 
toward the other. Between them is a larger 
class, neither capitalist nor labor unionist, 
who are without prejudices, and I hope I am 
one of those. The effects of the panic are not 
over. We must expect industrial depression. 
This may be fruitful of labor controversies. 
I earnestly hope that a more conservative and 
conciliatory attitude on both sides may avoid 
the destructive struggles of the past." 



261 



APPENDIX. 



WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT 

Born September 15, 1857, Cincinnati, Ohio. 

Father, Alphonso Taft. Born, Townsend, Vermont, 1810. 
Graduate of Yale, 1833. Judge, Superior Court, Cincinnati, 
1865-1871. Secretary of War, 1875-1876. Attorney-General, 
1876-1877. United States Minister to Austria, 1883-1885. 
United States Minister to Russia, 1885-1887. 

Mother, Louise M. (Torrey) Taft, daughter of Samuel D. 
Torrey, West India merchant, Boston. Born in Boston, Sep- 
tember 11, 1827. Married, Millbury, Mass. 

Educated: Public schools, Cincinnati, including Woodward 
High School, where he was graduated, 187-4. Yale University 
four years, graduating June, 1878, degree Bachelor of Arts, 
second or salutatorian in class of 121; also elected by class, class 
orator. Entered Law School, Cincinnati College, 1878, grad- 
uating May, 1880, degree B.L., dividing iirst prize. 

Admitted to bar of Supreme Court of Ohio, May, 1880. Law 
reporter, Cincinnati Times, and subsequently on Cincinnati 
Commercial, 1880. Appointed Assistant Prosecuting Attorney, 
January, 1881. Resigned, March, 1882, to become Collector of 
Internal Revenue, 1st district, Ohio, under President Arthur. 
Resigned Collectorship, March, 1883, to enter practice of law\ 
Continued practice until March, 1887, holding meantime from 
January, 1885, office of Assistant County Solicitor, Hamilton 
County. March, 1887, appointed by Governor Foraker Judge 
Superior Court of Cincinnati, to fill vacancy caused by resigna- 
tion of Judson Harmon. April, 1888, was elected to succeed 
himself. Judge Superior Court, for five vears. Resigned in 
February, 1890, to become Solicitor-General United States, un- 
der appointment of President Harrison. Resigned, March, 1892, 
to become United States Circuit Judge for Sixth Judicial Circuit 
and ex-officio member Circuit Court of Appeals of Sixth Circuit. 
June, 1893, received honorary degree LL.D. from Yale University. 
In 1896, became professor and Dean of Law Department of 
University of Cincinnati. Resigned, March, 1900, Circuit 
Judgeship and Deanship, to become, by appointment of President 
McKinley, President United States Filippines Commission. 
July 4, 1901, by appointment of President McKinley, became 

262 



first Civil Governor of the Filippine Islands. November 1, 1901, 
turned over office of Governor to \'ice-Governor Wright on ac- 
count of illness. December 23, 1901, by order of Secretary of 
War, visited United States and Washington to testify before 
Senate Committee on Filippines and House Committee of Insular 
Affairs. Testified before two committees for six weeks. Feb- 
ruary 22, 1902, received degree LL.D. from University of Penn- 
sylvania. May 17, 1902, sailed from United States to Rome, by 
order of President Roosevelt and Secretary Root, to confer with 
Pope Leo XIII, concerning purchase of agricultural lands of 
Religious Orders in the Filippines. Held conference with Com- 
mittee of Cardinals June and July, and reached general basis 
for agreement. Sailed, Naples, July 10th, for Filippines. Reached 
Filippines August 22, 1902, and resumed office Civil Governor. 
December 23, 1903, sailed to United States to become Secretary 
of war. Was appointed Sercetary of War February 1, 1904. 

November-December, 1904, Aisited Panama to confer with the 
Panama authorities, by direction of the President, upon ques- 
tions arising with reference to government of the Canal Zone. 

LL.D., Harvard, 1905. LL.D., Miami, 1905. 

July, August and September, 1905, visited on a tour of inspec- 
tion Filippine Islands, with a party of Senators and Representa- 
tives. 

September-October, 1906, visited Cuba, under the direction 
of the President, to confer with the people for the purpose of 
arranging peace. Acted for a short time as Provisional Governor 
of that island. 

\'isitcd Panama, Cuba and Porto Rico in March and April, 
1907, by direction of the President, to attend to various pending 
matters and look into conditions; in September, October, No- 
vember and December, 1907, visited the Filippine Islands for 
the purpose of opening the Filippine Assembly. 

Married, June 19, 1886, Helen Herron, daughter of Honorable 
John W. Herron, of Cincinnati, United States District Attorney 
and State Senator. Have three children: Robert Alphonso, born 
September 8, 1889; Helen Herron, born August 1, 1891, and 
Charles Phelps 2nd, born September 20, 1897. 

Member of the following Societies and Clubs: 

Societies: American Bar Association; National Geographi- 
cal Society; President Red Cross Society. 

Clubs: Metropolitan Club; University Club; Chevy Chase 
Club; Cosmos Club; University Club of New York. 

263 



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